Chapter 55
The video opened up with a look over a long cliff. The sky was a deep, darkening blue, as though taken from a painting. The clouds bathed in the fading golden light of a setting sun, and with every second that passed, the light retreated further and further away from the thick forests below.
"Yeah, it's... Been awhile since I've done this, huh?" Spoke a voice, before the camera turned around and displayed a tired and haggard face. Two gunmetal gray, cybernetic eyes, framed by the lines of lost sleep and beset upon by the stress of trauma, were situated above a smile that wholly failed to reach them. A hand cloaked in an onyx metal suit, with a long, baggy sleeve hanging off of it, came up and swept through the shaggy hair that grew out of the recorder's face, before rubbing at his eyes.
He let out a long sigh, before sniffing in through his nose and nodding to the camera. "I guess I say... 'For the record'...?" He chuckled, and the camera jostled about as he sat down on the edge of the cliff, looking out to the setting sun, its final rays casting his skin in a golden glow. "Haven't done a video recording - on my phone no less! - since you-know-who picked me up." A beat, before he gave the camera a wink and a grin. "I am of course talking about Lord Voldemort." He chuckled.
"Been wondering how I'd do this one for the last two weeks, really. Would I go down to the vault and record among the recovered wreckage? Sit on my Magic Chair? Drink some of the terran alcohol? Maybe pop an Oxycodone and go on a high rant for thirty minutes?" He listed off, before sighing, the wistful smile still on his face. "But then I realized... I've been here for a year and a half, and I've never once watched the sun set. Which is doubly awful because these new eyes -" He indicated the metal spheres in his head. "They're good, folks. Not like those fleshy pieces of shit I used to have, these ones can stare at the sun for hours and I won't go blind." A beat. "Don't ask how I know that - moving on!" He held up a finger.
"To get to the point... This may be my last record." He nodded, lowering his hand to his lap with a light clap. "Something may go wrong tomorrow night and I'll die... Something may go right, and I'll still die when I get to you-know-where and fight the White Witch... Or everything will simultaneously go right, and wrong, and I'll have no time to keep up with it while I'm trying to un-fuck everything." He explained, "so... No matter what happens, even if this isn't my last entry, I decided to record this one, so I could say it...
"Simply put... If you haven't learned it yet, my name is Nebo Aldric, and I don't regret anything I've done in the last eighteen months." He said, with a tone of finality. "I regret that it all had to be done... But I don't regret that I did it... Buuuuuut..." He forced out, each word appearing as though it were resisting being spoken. "With that said... I... Am... Sorry... That I did it. I know what all I did was bad. Evil. Wrong." He grunted, face contorting into an expression of pain. "I am... Truly sorry I did all of these things... That I'll have to keep doing them until this is all finished. You all may not believe me... Fuck, I don't believe me." He breathed. "But... I am. I am." He stressed, voice shaking. "I wish I didn't have to play this role. I wish I could've just been found by Ozpin and just pretended everything was alright. Be Superman instead of Ozzymandias... But the universe didn't quite match up with what I wanted, and now I'm here.
"The Vytal finals are tomorrow. Everything has..." He shook his head, rubbing at his face with his free hand. "Gone exactly how we wanted it. Earth and Remnant are pissed at eachother again, people are scared, Grimm are antsy..." He snorted. "Fuck - Pyrrha thinks this is all on her to fix, bless her. And Yang's been trying to get her Dad and her uncle to come to Vale in case something happens. Of course Goud and Ruby are trying to convince everyone that everything will be fine, but..." He nodded out to the woods. "Everything stopped being fine when an alien aircraft got shot through time and space and crash-landed in demon-infested woods... For better or worse, after tomorrow I'm in completely uncharted territory. Anything can happen.
"So... As the good Doctor - uh, Strange, not Who - said...
"We're in the endgame now."
The video ended.
It began with Terran sports.
They utilized the Tournament Arena's variable stage to set up most of what they needed, the rest coming from hastily erected structures. The first sport of the day consisted of a full game of soccer; never having been one for sports even back home, Aldric went to the game because the legion of women he'd become acquainted with dragged him there, and the combined efforts of Pyrrha, Yang, and Ecru kept him from sleeping through it. That ended up benefiting him, because he got to see the work of the assassin he'd coined. At first it was subtle, with him not quite noticing it. A weak kick here, an overshot goal there, a Terran player making a shot they had no right to, a Remnant player missing something they shouldn't have, and higher it would escalate until Aldric would notice these people - fueled by lifetimes of battle and aura and still superhuman even without it - were running out of stamina while their Terran counterparts hardly even looked winded. A lot of the spectators began noticing it around this time too, with many realizing the fact that Earth was dominating the scoreboard in a mostly physical sport. They acknowledged that the Terran players had more experience in the sport, but all of that didn't mean anything when one of the Remnant players collapsed after the game's conclusion, and it was discovered that their water had been spiked.
Outrage obviously followed, with Aldric getting front row seats to the CCT Network and his fellow students' reactions. It was practically all unbridled rage and frustration, with some accusing the Terrans of unnecessarily flaunting their self-proclaimed superiority over Remnant. Fortunately, they would get their chance to work out some of those frustrations when, after the games, came the first rounds of the 'Interdisciplinary Tournament'. Ten Terrans, ten Humans with their auras locked up tight, in a tournament spread over three days. Cinder used her scroll to bump off a few of the intended fighters and replace them with the members of BFGM, but to Aldric's amazement, No wasn't the only one to leave a Terran bloodied afterwards, he was just the only one who took it as far as he did, and his was the only one who had to be rushed out by ambulance.
No was arrested both by huntsmen and terran soldiers following this, and while Torchwick's connections helped keep him taken care of, they didn't stop the day from ending with the tensions slowly rising. Humans and Terrans alike, were beginning to worry that these games may be indicative of something dark to come. Regardless, the next day came traditional Terran sports, and as Aldric had predicted, there weren't many Humans watching them, at least not in person. He was still dragged along by the usual suspects, with Yang taking particular interest when, at the end of the day, an octagon was set up for an Ultimate Fighting match. The day after that found themselves embroiled in the Vytal tournament, which, due to its nature, absorbed multiple days before the next joint Terran-Human games.
Aldric got some exercise on one of those days, and had considered using his pull with Cinder to try and force a fight between his team and Ruby's, before realizing that half of the point of the tournament was people of other countries fighting eachother, not fellow students of their home academies, leading him to just decide that if it did happen, it probably wouldn't for a while. That behind him, GEMS won their first fight against a Mistrali team, leading Aldric and Ecru to move forward. He'd tried to skip out on it, his excuse being that someone else should have the limelight, but his real reason him wanting to rest and relax as much as possible in preparation for his big night, coming soon. Ecru, however, put the kibosh on that real fast, throwing his own musing about symbols and hope right back at him and declaring that there weren't many Beacon students right now that everyone looked up to, but he and his shield were among them.
After the initial rounds of the tournament came the next T-H day, a return of the massive audiences of the first day, and a game of basketball. Aldric actually found himself interested in this one, and much like the first, this one was sabotaged to the full favor of the Terrans, though this time in a less savory way: The Remnant players were accruing injuries during the course of the game, only a few of which Aldric realized were actually coming from the man bought by his coin, the rest coming from the pissed off Terran players going at it a bit more roughly than they should have been. Then add that, yes, Remnant had found their fair share of tall players to go through the game with, that didn't mean any of them had played it or with eachother before, leading to cries of favoritism and cheating from the Humans when the Terrans inevitably won.
And, much like the first day, outrage came and was quelled when it was time for the fighting, but this time there was calls of foul play from the Terrans before the fighting even began, when it was brought up that, due to them lacking aura, their fighters couldn't heal nearly as well or as fast as their Human opponents, resulting in many of the Terrans walking into the proverbial ring still sporting their injuries from the days previous. This had the side effect, Ozpin later told him, of igniting the Terrans' demands for Dust refining techniques in earnest, as they could mine it all they wanted, but they still didn't know how to refine it into a much more safe, less volatile, state. Obviously, Remnant's refusal to capitulate, and Illia completely crippling her fighter, alongside several others going to the hospital, only made Earth all the angrier.
Following this the rumors and whispers only got worse, as armed presence of both Terran and Humans alike steadily began increasing. The tournament and the games were even shut down for a day. Soon competitors on both sides were getting armed escorts and members of the press were being denied their pursuits, and the talks of potential conflict began leaking into the dorms. Ever the idealist, Goud Etiolate worked his damnedest to convince those in his circle of friends that another war was impossible, maintaining his public faith in both species. Pyrrha ended up confronting him on this later, confiding in him her fear that the transfer of Amber's remaining powers to her may be a ploy by Ozpin to obtain a weapon comparable to the Terrans' sun bomb, but in Remnant's hands, and her worry that this meant Ozpin feared, if not suspected outright, that another war was inevitable. Aldric again played his part, cheering Pyrrha up as he always did and doing his best to give her whatever faith in humanity that he pretended to have.
Once the festival resumed, it was a lot quieter, as many were choosing to remain in their homes and watch the chaos, as opposed to being there in the middle of it. The terran games were practically empty, save only reporters of both worlds and those spectators brave, interested, or determined enough to attend. Then the Vytal Tournament continued, with Cinder and Aldric rigging it to put the most violent teams against eachother, both because they could and because the sudden change in atmosphere would only help the Grimm assault that was fast approaching. The only breaks in the carnage came when the teams that still seemed to be somewhat aware that this was all supposed to be fun and games went up against eachother, with Aldric and Ecru winning their match against an Atlesian team and moving onto the finals.
Then came the inevitable.
When the final T-H fights arrived, Neo danced her way through the roster until she found herself fighting the last remaining Terran in the semi-finals. Aldric would give the man, a boxer from Russia, credit - the man was slam-dancing with supermen and women and had managed to last to the final three fighters, with little to no time to recover fully. Unfortunately, he had been doing so against men and women who were following the rules, and Neo, aware that he was the last Terran in the fight, now had only one rule to play by: To damn near kill her opponent. She played with her food long enough that the man was gasping for air, and when he made his fatal mistake, throwing a punch so wide that he overextended himself, Neo planted her foot in his stomach, and he collapsed to the ground.
Aldric had to block out the screams of disgust, fear, and anger that welled up after this, instead steeling himself for the grand finale the next day.
Or, perhaps not the next day, as everything got shut down again when a terran soldier picked a fight with a Remnant one, and it almost ended with them and their friends exchanging fire.
When the tournament did resume some days later, it appeared that even the tension between the two worlds couldn't fully drown out the excitement everyone was feeling to see the best students prove themselves against each other in the finals. The stands were packed, and the cheers seemed less forced than they did desperate, as though they were trying to convince themselves that everything would be fine. Unfortunately for them, everything would be as far from fine as was physically possible, because when the time came for Aldric's final battle against some guy from Vacuo, the finale, the end he had been working towards for eighteen months, was signaled by a very specific clarion.
On another planet in another solar system, more than a dozen men and women charged the heads of state of more than a dozen sovereign countries.
While simultaneously, on this planet, in this solar system, a sniper round exploded out from the assassin hidden amongst the gathered Terran soldiers, and in the blink of an eye it crossed the distance between the shooter and its target: Aldric's chest.
Now of course Aldric's suit took the shot, but he still played the part and stumbled back from the impact, coughed, and fell to his rear, allowing his aura to visibly break. There was no time at all for a stunned silence to sprout up - because when the computer monitoring his and his opponents' aura sounded off with its loud klaxon, people began to scream, shout, and gasp. Aldric sensed, of all people, Pyrrha bodily haul herself over the stands, using her powers to slow her descent and rush towards the ring.
Aldric coughed again, barely able to hear his name being shouted by the red-headed knight over the sounds of the audience's outrage. His opponent had backed up several steps, raising his hands and making it clear he knew the fight had just been called off, but all of that took a backseat when the lights cut out, and left only the giant monitor hovering above them as the sole source of light.
Then, a video began playing on the television screens. It showed footage from all fronts of the war, footage from violence having occurred during the festival, and then, finally, Aldric being shot.
"What a wonderful web you've woven." Cinder's voice spoke out. "This - this is what you call 'peace'." The video then cut to a feed from far outside Vale's walls, depicting Grimm of all kinds turning towards the kingdom, sensing the fear welling up in the populace, "this is what you call 'honest competition'." All the examples of Earth 'cheating' began playing in rapid-fire. "This is what you call a 'fair fight'..." Neo, No, and Illia's violence, alongside the unintentional displays, showed.
"What you've seen here today..." Came Cinder. "What you've seen these last weeks... They were not an accident. They were not a tragedy. They are examples of what occurs when you give the power to shape entire worlds to men too arrogant to wield it with any humility. On Earth, your people live on a knife's edge, a mere button's press away from destroying yourselves quickly, and decades - at best - away from an environmental collapse that will kill you all slowly. On Remnant, the Academies' Headmasters wield more power on their own than entire armies."
"Ash!" He sensed Pyrrha reach him, the prospective Maiden falling to her knees and helping Ash up to a seated position. "Are you okay?" She checked over his chest for wounds.
"We trust those people to use that power responsibly. With honor and mercy... But I have failed to see any of those things. First in Earth, cheating in the name of good sport. Then in Remnant, crippling and murdering men whose only wish was for a fair contest of strength." She spat. "Perhaps Earth thought that to establish their superiority they would win in sport and in war... Perhaps Remnant felt that in defeating Earth they could make their people forget their colossal mistake in protecting them those months ago."
Aldric looked up to the TV screen, briefly exchanging glances with Pyrrha, who wore a fearful expression, not at all aware of what was happening.
"I honestly cannot tell you who is right and who is wrong... But I know that our leaders know we are on the brink of war... And do nothing to stop it, content to let their people live in the dark." Then Ozpin's voice played over a live feed of the Vytal arena.
"I am allowing two planets to engage in a war perhaps just as deadly, if not moreso, as then both planets will be aware of the others' tricks and will have developed countermeasures and defenses for them." Came Ozpin's voice, causing the rookies around Aldric to gasp, with Pyrrha's hand shooting to her mouth, as the sky around the arena began to light up, with Remnant airships and Terran jets engaging the airborne Grimm.
"So..." Cinder came back. "I ask you... When the first shots are inevitably fired... Who will you be able to trust?" The screen cut to static, and the lights returned.
"Ash..." Aldric heard Pyrrha whisper. "What -"
"Alert." Suddenly shrieked an alarm. "Grimm attack incoming. Threat level Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner." It broadcast, causing the spectators to begin screaming in fear, rushing for the exits.
Another voice, one Aldric hadn't heard in too long, one gruff and weathered by a lifetime's military career, came in over the arena's loudspeakers. "Ladies and gentlemen - please!" Shouted Ironwood, trying to cut through the rising din. "Stay calm, there is no reason to panic!"
Having successfully tempted fate, a gigantic Nevermore landed on the barrier surrounding the floating arena and began angrily smashing away at it, immediately causing soldiers, both Terran and Human, to begin screaming out orders for their respective peoples to begin evacuating - their words followed by a terran jet spiraling out of the air and crashing into the barrier in a massive explosion.
"Ash! Pyrrha!" Aldric heard Jaune's voice, barely over the sounds of chaos. "Get out of there!" He pointed up to the barrier, his next words drowned out by another round of attacks from the Nevermore.
But moments later, said Nevermore finally broke through the barrier. Aldric thought he heard Jaune and Ruby scream out in fear for their friends, but his priority immediately shifted, as he shook his head 'clear' of the 'pain', 'forced' himself to his feet, pushed Pyrrha behind him and then hauled his star-spangled shield above his head. The gigantic bird's beak slammed into the shield's center with a loud bang, and it struggled for a moment, but soon it found itself thrown aside by Aldric's opponent, the barrel of his weapon smoking.
"Dude, I don't think that's going to do anything but piss it off." Aldric called out to the dark-haired student, as Pyrrha whipped out her scroll and began typing away furiously.
"Do you have a better idea?!" He heard the guy shout, as the Nevermore picked itself up and began ascending.
"Actually!" Aldric grinned, seeing the rocket-lockers already arcing towards the arena. "Yes!" And they all smashed into the demon bird, tearing into it and forcing it onto the ground.
Soon the arena was flooded with Beacon's students, and as the Atlesian finished off the Nevermore, the students armed themselves. Pyrrha turned to Aldric as she secured her shield to her arm, her expression one of fear and worry. "Ash, what's happening?"
Aldric shook his head, "I don't know... But we need to get off this stadium before it goes down."
"I couldn't agree more, Mister Etiolate!" Aldric heard the dulcet tones of Professor Oobleck call out, as he and Port arrived in the arena, brandishing their weapons, the latter's eyes locked to the sky, noticing the Griffon Grimm beginning to descend en-masse. "It appears as though the arena's rather abrupt landing will be but a matter of time, so please!" He indicated the exit, "we shall buy you time!"
The students didn't argue, instead retreating from the arena en-masse. They made it all of twenty feet past the stadium and towards the landing pads before being accosted by dozens of smaller Grimm, many of which were ignoring them entirely and rushing towards the shuttles themselves, intending on attacking the helpless civilians inside. Aldric, knowing this was one of the few times he'd ever get to pretend he was anything approaching 'good', cried out in defiance and leapt into the air, bolting past the small horde of Grimm and landing in between them and the shuttles, his shield secured tightly to his hand and raised defiantly.
The Grimm charged him, and while Aldric threw himself into the fray, defending the front, the other Beacon students began tearing into them from the rear. Large beowolves, small boarbatusks, the occasional Ursa and Griffon, Aldric's shield was soon pounding and bouncing off of Grimm of all shapes and sizes, proving to be the line the Grimm had to cross in order to make it to the civilians. The sounds of bones crunching, flesh tearing, teeth and claw scraping across metal, guns firing, and -
Aldric found himself momentarily blinded when, out of nowhere, a huge flash of pure golden-white light, accompanied by a sound almost akin to that of a cymbal being struck, heralded an Ursa exploding into turquoise flames and dropping to the ground, thrashing about in pain as it slowly faded away into dark smoke, leaving an utterly bewildered Jaune Arc standing there, staring wide-eyed at the display. He saw Aldric staring from his distance away, and managed out a confused 'Uh' before being attacked by another Grimm. This prompted Aldric to reengage his own, and soon the gigantic brawl began again in earnest, periodically interrupted by flashes of light and the death throes of the Grimm struck by it.
The students bought the shuttles valuable time, but they were few, and the Grimm were many - and were only growing in number. For every one whose neck Aldric shattered with his shield, or whose stomach he ruptured with his fist, two more came around to attack, and he found himself growing increasingly preoccupied less with killing them than using his semblance to catch the ones that made it past him and drag them back towards him. The Beacon students were hardly fairing any better, as they found themselves surrounded by the Grimm and soon fighting back-to-back, with even Jaune's unexpected boon proving to be too little to make a difference. As Aldric considered further options though, the one and only good piece of news throughout the entire night made itself aware.
Perhaps ironically, it came in the form of hundreds of terrorists.
The first bullhead was soon joined by a second, were joined by two more, by four, and soon the air was filled with huge transport VTOLs filled with White Fang soldiers, and the decaying corpses of the Grimm they had just betrayed and slaughtered. Untethered from Cinder's influence and now perhaps the only variable openly working against her, Taurus made as full use of it as he could, his ships blasting over the arena and hurtling towards Beacon, while some came to a hover over the landing pads, spilling out troops who all charged into the fray, screaming wildly as they fired at the Grimm. Taurus himself even joined this battle, likely for one very specific reason, though Aldric wouldn't complain. With the sheer amount of firepower he brought to the table, in minutes, a situation which had Aldric considering augmenting Jaune's unexpected boon with his lightsaber, or something similarly more lethal than his shield, turned into a cleanup operation.
Which, when finished, had Aldric charging up to Jaune and giving the Arc a huge bear hug. "Oh Johnny-boy!" He called out, spinning the swordsman in a circle and hugging so hard he felt his back crack and pop. "When were you going to tell me you could kill Grimm dead?!" He dropped Jaune to the ground, "how long have you been holding out on us, eh?!" He gave him a playful shove.
Jaune, however, looked just as bewildered as Aldric was surprised. "I... I don't know, Ash!" He said, over the sound of the White Fang's ships coming in for a landing, and Taurus rallying his men; Aldric didn't fail to notice with his radar an amazed, albeit suspicious glare at the bull from Blake. "I just... Hit the Grimm and..." He shook his head.
"Holy shit that sword is magic!" Aldric shook his head, "well you know what? I'll fuckin' take it Jaune!" Perhaps his sudden hysteria was stemming from how spectacularly the Master Sword gambit had paid off, perhaps it was from the sudden realization that Plan B may be far less of a Hail Mary than he'd initially thought, or perhaps he was laying it on thick because he knew these were Goud's final hours, all he knew was that Jaune had just smited these things.
And now, with everyone having turned to him following the battle, he needed to finish Goud on the highest note possible, so he cleared his throat, banging his metal arm on his shield to get the attention of both the students and the Fang. Taurus realized what he was doing almost as soon as he started, and nodded once.
"Alright, this is the situation as it stands." Aldric called out, eyes briefly snapping towards an Atlesian bullhead taking off to the skies, "There's a fuckton of Grimm, and a terrified kingdom down there. Earth is pissed, and the lack of any Terran airships makes it pretty obvious they aren't going to help. Remnant is pissed at Earth for trying to assassinate my red white and blue ass, so they may very well be getting ready to start shooting the terrans just as soon as they'll start shooting Grimm." To confirm his words, Aldric saw the legions of airships in the sky slowly about-facing, some scant few alongside fighter screens began descending to provide fire support on the ground, but the rest were clearly taking aim at the assembled Terran warships. "So for now the only way we can kick Grimm ass and keep our people safe is if we're the ones that do it, yeah?" He got some cheers and some weapons pumped up and down in the air at this. "Good news is -" He looked to Taurus and waved him over; the Fang leader approached alongside a few guards, "- we won't be alone.
"Now, Mister Taurus, I'm a firm believer in redemption stories, so if you want to trade in your terrorist card for a freedom fighter's flag, I'll fuckin' take it." He pulled out his lightsaber, winked at Taurus, ignited the blade, and rested the blade centimeters above each of Taurus' shoulders, knighting the man. "So as far as I'm concerned you're square with the state. So we need you to take however many guys and guns you have and help out wherever and however you can, yeah?"
Taurus nodded, "I have men and bullheads already deploying around the weakened sections of the wall. We won't stop anything but we'll mitigate the damage."
Aldric nodded, "damn good." He turned back to the others, "the rest of you, spread the message: Take the fight to the Grimm, don't let them take it to us! Try to contain their attacks to as small an area as you can, but prioritize civilians over everything!" He said, starting to jog towards the airships, "we start at Beacon and move our way out, c'mon!" And they all followed him, the Huntsmen and women cheering out their battle cries and Taurus snapping orders to the Fang.
GEMS and JNPR gathered up in their bullhead and it lurched off the landing pad, Jaune took the chance to corner Aldric, "Ash, do you know something about the sword?" He asked, a look of equal parts terror, curiosity, and concern in his eyes.
Aldric shook his head, "I'm pretty sure I told you this, dude. Legends said it could smite Grimm, only the worthy could wield it, all that jazz. That's pretty much the length and width of what I know, dude." Ooh... He thought. Let's make a running tally of how many lies I'm going to have to tell by the end of tonight. I'm pretty sure I've already hit ninety five. "They were just old village legends."
"But..." Jaune looked down to his sword. "Magic?"
Aldric shrugged, "dude, you're living in a world where we're not alone in the universe, where demons are constantly trying to kill us, and you're a holding a sword that just smited a bunch of Grimm. Nothing's impossible." He said, noticing a knowing glance from Pyrrha.
"Wait!" Ecru called out, shoving her way past Aldric, "does that mean Jaune is an instrument of the Gods?!"
"His sword is!" Nora giggled, "I always knew he had it in him!"
"You -" Ren began in his customary deadpan, as the bullhead came down for a landing. "- were worried he may be what keeps us from winning the tournament."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Nora sang, as she kicked open the door and rushed outside.
GEMS and JNPR found themselves outside, but before they could make a decision as to where, specifically, to go, the decision was made for them - with the oudest thunderclap Aldric had heard in his life. The two teams turned in the direction of the sound of the sky splitting in two and saw, off in the distance, that it wasn't the sky splitting, but a mountain, and in a display Aldric never quite thought he'd see anywhere but a movie screen, he watched with wide eyes and a gaping mouth as the mountain exploded, with gigantic, city-sized chunks of earth sliding off of it, flattening trees and tearing up the earth as they slid down to ground level, and from within the mountain, with dirt and debris streaming off of its tarry body and its bleach-white exoskeleton, was a dragon, stretching its wings and craning its neck.
Despite being hundreds of kilometers away, they heard its roar, loud and deep, from where they were, even feeling that roar in their chest. Aldric could see the trees on the mountain shake, some even being torn out of the ground, with the first beat of its wings, and with the second, its titanic body lifted off the ground, and it soon turned towards Vale and, with another roar, took off in earnest, hurtling towards Vale - specifically, towards Beacon. GEMS and JNPR stood there, staring at it in shock; even Aldric, who had literally known it would happen for almost two years now, found himself in awe at seeing it in person.
"Well!" Aldric scoffed, "this escalated quickly!"
Then Pyrrha turned tail and sprinted for Beacon Tower.
Jaune snapped out of his reverie, turning to Pyrrha and calling out to her. "Pyrrha - wait!" He held his hand out futilely.
"What?" Ecru revolved on her foot, seeing Jaune standing there and Pyrrha running off to the distance. "What is she doing?!" She gasped.
"I..." Jaune hesitated, head dropping to his sword. "I... Ash!" He turned to Aldric.
Aldric blinked. "Huh?"
"Ash, go find her! Bring her back!" Aldric heard more determination in Jaune's voice now than he'd ever before, this accompanying a fire in his eyes that wouldn't have looked out of place in Yang's in the middle of a good fight.
"Exscuse me?" And here he'd had this whole plan to notice Pyrrha and Cinder's fight tear the top off Beacon Tower, take off, and show up before the latter would kill the former. "Me?!"
Jaune frowned, nodding once. "I... I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is..." He looked up, fear briefly pervading the fire in his eyes as they beheld the approaching mythic creature. "I won't be able to keep her safe. You're stronger than me." Aldric heard his voice shaking, noticed a tightness in his chest, as though he were forcing out every word he spoke, and he wasn't the only one - Nora exchanged a look with Ren, who nodded once, a grim frown on his face. "So I'm asking you - whatever she's doing, bring her back, okay?"
Aldric looked down, breaking eye contact with Jaune, before nodding. "Okay." He about-faced, "you three - that down there -" He indicated Vale, and the multiple fires and gunfights that had already sprouted up. "- that's the priority. You listen to Jaune, you keep eachother safe."
Ecru blinked, "but - Ash!"
Aldric shook his head, "don't. It won't take all of us to pull Pyrrha out of there, but it will take all of us to keep Vale from falling apart." He gave each of them a nod, "I'll be back." He lied, before turning to, and approaching, Jaune. "I'll make sure she gets back to you, Jaune. Whatever it takes." He clasped Jaune on the shoulder, "you stay safe yourself. ight your way to the docks, they'll be evacuating folks there. Keep the fire alive, yeah?"
Jaune nodded, a pained expression hiding under his determined frown.
Then Aldric grinned, "and for gods' sake boy - keep your shield up!" He and Jaune shared a laugh as he started jogging away, leaving the two groups with a wave, before he turned and sprinted towards Pyrrha.
She was already halfway to Beacon tower by the time Aldric had started running after her, and by the time he caught up with her, she was passing the fountain in front of it - and they both saw Ozpin standing at the building's threshold, a dark expression on his face.
"Pyrrha!" Aldric called out, "Pyrrha, wait!"
Pyrrha closed her eyes, shook her head, "I can't, Ash! This has to happen!" She said, as the two of them reached Ozpin.
Aldric, however, grabbed Pyrrha's arm with his free hand, pulled her behind him, and raised his shield to Ozpin. "Like hell it does!" He shouted, gaze shifting between her and him. "Lady, I get it - we might need that Maiden stuff in the time coming! But you heard what I did on the TV, how do we know he's even on our side?!"
"Mister Etiolate..." Quietly protested Ozpin, whose hands were resting atop his cane. "I assure you my words were taken -"
"You're -" Aldric glared at Ozpin, "not involved in this!"
Ozpin frowned, "I'm feeling pretty involved, Mister Etiolate." He said, with a sidewards nod. "About as involved as the millions who will die if we do not do this now."
"Or how about the millions who will die anyway because your ass could have prevented an entire war! Or are you really trying to make me forget about that?!" Translation: He had no idea how Cinder had heard that in the first place, and he wasn't brushing it off.
"Ash... Please." Pyrrha begged, pressing her hand to Aldric's, gently prying his fingers off of her arm.
"I am not certain of how the woman heard what I said, Mister Etiolate, but what I am certain of is that if this does not happen, the millions that will die period will pale to the countless that will die in the coming months." Was he supposed to take from that that Ozpin was just as confused, but wasn't necessarily pissed at Aldric? Or that he'd just accepted it as a part of the whole plan?
"Ash!" Pyrrha turned Aldric towards her, and over her shoulder he could see the dragon coming closer, now passing over Vale itself and dropping more Grimm from its body with every passing second. "I..." She hesitated, briefly looking up to Ozpin. "I don't know what it is we heard..." Her voice shook, "but all I know is that my taking this power is far less bad than what would happen if the speaker were to take it." She tried again to pry Aldric's hand free of her arm, "please, don't stop me. This has to happen!" Aldric saw a tear welling up in her eye, as her voice shook and an airship briefly lit up the sky with an orange fireball. "Every second we lose..." She cast a look over her bare shoulder, at the dragon as it passed under the pale white moon. "We can't afford to do so."
Aldric hesitated for a moment, letting an internal debate flash over his face, before he made one final push. "Pyrrha what if this is all some kind of... Sinister plot? How can we trust anything he's said?" He slowly lowered his shield, "I'm not advocating what that woman said - gods no - but we can't deny that it was his voice saying those words!"
She nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. "I'm scared too, Ash... But please. If I have the chance to save lives... I have to take it." She tilted her head, a sorrowful smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Right?"
Aldric's shield dropped to his side, as he let his expression fall to one of defeat, joined by a sigh, before the fire was reignited in his eyes and he turned to Ozpin. "Fine, but I'm not leaving her side."
Ozpin nodded and quickly beckoned the two inside, "I wouldn't have it any other way, Mister Etiolate. With the time we lost we may need someone to protect us until the process is finished."
The three sprinted through the brightly lit, but thoroughly abandoned lobby of Beacon Tower, "what process?!" Ash called out, "she gave me the basics a few months ago, he Maidens and all that, but -"
"The woman in control of the Grimm - all of them - is making her move tonight and someone is coming to reclaim the final half of the Fall Maiden's powers." Ozpin said hurriedly, as the three of them piled into the elevator and, with a tap of his cane, it began a sudden and meteoric descent to Beacon's vault. "We intend to prevent that, to give those powers to her and have her reclaim them from the usurper."
"Then I can use them to help protect Remnant during the war that has just started." Pyrrha picked up, as Aldric's stomach jumped up to his throat, and he even felt lighter on his feet, the elevator was dropping so fast. "Perhaps even rally the other Maidens... Make a push like never before in history."
Aldric leaned against the wall, bringing a hand to his head and shaking it, pretending to be overwhelmed. "Wow..." He said, swiping his hand through his dark hair. "And -" He shoved off the wall as the elevator slowed, "and what's the side effects of this? You're shoving someone else's soul into her body, there has to be some kind of takeback!"
To which, Ozpin played his part and shook his head. "We honestly do not know, Mister Etiolate. Nothing may happen, or the Pyrrha that exits the device may be wholly opposite the one that went in. We simply -"
"And you're okay with this?!" Aldric shook his head, "Pyrrha, I get it - great power, great responsibility, symbols, and all that - I do! But there has to be a limit! A line you can't cross!" He beseeched her, "if you can't predict what you'll be afterwards... How do you know your morals, ideals, memories, or anything will survive the transition?" He asked, "you could walk out and then just decide to help them!"
Pyrrha looked tortured at this, closing her eyes and nodding. "I know." She whispered, clearly having thought this through, perhaps every night since she'd been brought in on it. "I know, Ash... But if the reward is lives saved... I have to take that chance." She peered up at him, "are you... Saying you wouldn't?"
He let out a long breath of air as the elevator came to a halt, not able to come up with an answer. Ozpin rushed out into the familiar, high walled environment of the vault, Pyrrha gave him a somber smile and laid her hand upon his shoulder, before following the Headmaster. Aldric waited a moment, leaning back against the elevator wall, before he followed them. He made a show of looking in awe at the new environment, but decided against asking about it, instead following the two to Amber and the machines keeping her alive.
Aldric slowed down and put on an awed look as they reached the machines, forcing himself to look at Amber one last time, as he nodded at her. "That's... Her?" He asked, uncertainly.
Pyrrha bit her lip, "yes, she's -"
"Pyrrha!" Ozpin called out, "you must get inside now, we've no time to waste!" He said, as some dust fell from the ceilings above, no doubt due to the dragon passing by and shaking the entire tower with the beats of its wings.
Pyrrha gave Aldric a pained look, before turning and rushing towards the empty pod.
Ozpin gave Aldric a glare from over his shoulder, "Mister Etiolate, your shield!"
Aldric frowned, and nodded at the man, turning around with a determined expression and taking up a defensive stance, shield held up in front of him. Pyrrha gave Aldric one last look, before she stepped into the pod. He heard Ozpin confirm twice that she was ready for what was about to happen, forcing her to say the words, before thanking her, closing the pod, and activating the process. Aldric's radar made absolutely sure he saw what happened next - as Amber began convulsing in her pod, glowing orange with her otherworldly energy. That energy lit up the piped connecting the two pods and traveled from Amber's to Pyrrha's, and she, now imbued with Amber's magic, began glowing the same shade of orange - and began screaming in an agony Aldric had grown all too used to hearing.
Aldric sensed Cinder plummeting down the elevator shaft, and played his role of the noble friend, beside himself with worry - glancing over his shoulder at the sound of Pyrrha's screams, then calling out himself in fear as it 'dawned' on 'Goud' the exact nature of what was being done to her. This moment of hesitation was all Cinder needed as she crossed the distance between her and Aldric, a glass bow forming in her hands.
"What -" Aldric called out, as Cinder ground to a halt.
"The hell -" Cinder pulled the bowstring, an arrow forming.
"Are you -" Aldric turned around fully, an outraged look on his face.
"DOING TO HER?!" Cinder let the arrow fly.
It shot through the air like a bullet, reaching Aldric and splitting apart into embers, flowing around him like water and then reassembling in front of his chest, before zipping right on by again, not delayed in the slightest. Aldric's head shot down, then back up as he noticed what had happened, and he was just able to see the arrow slam into the glass of Amber's pod, dig through it, and then penetrate Amber's weakly beating heart. Her gored face contorted with pain and shock, before she limply slid forward.
"No!" Ozpin gasped, as the process that had begun, now ceased.
Aldric spun around and watched Cinder lower the bow, a victorious smirk on her face as the lights in the vault all died out, and the energy shot out from Amber and Pyrrha and hurtled towards her. 'Goud' did the only thing he could think of, and threw his shield as hard as he could. The energy passed through the air faster than his shield spun, and it reunited with its other half just as the shield reached Cinder, who merely threw her hand up and caught it, stopping it cold. Aldric's shoulders slumped and his back straightened, he adopted an expression of fear as Cinder's smirk grew, and her eyes glowed with bright orange fire.
He sensed Pyrrha desperately beating on the glass of her pod as Cinder reared her hand, and as she began to levitate, she threw 'Goud's' shield right back at him. Aldric caught it with his hands and brought it to his chest, the force so great that he slid halfway back to Ozpin and Pyrrha before he overcame the momentum her throw had created.
"Goud - no!" Ozpin called out as Ozpin let out a loud bellow and charged Cinder, whose expression didn't change.
She blasted him twice with basketball sized fireballs, both exploded off of his shield and left him unharmed, but it was when he leapt into the air and tried to throw a haymaker at her that she shot him with a golden bolt of lightning and sent him flying back with a thunderclap. He hit the ground so hard that the concrete underneath him fractured, and he bounced twice before rolling to a halt before Ozpin and Pyrrha.
"ASH!" He heard Pyrrha scream from within her pod, before she glowed with a dark energy and tore the door from its hinges, hurtling it at Cinder, who merely raised her hand again and melted it into slag before it could reach her.
Cinder descended to the ground as Pyrrha knelt down before Aldric. "You know..." Aldric groaned, a delirious smile on his face. "Magnesis and all that... You could do that." He chuckled.
"Ash -" Pyrrha's voice shook, "Ash -"
But she was silenced by Ozpin stepping before the two of them, cane held out to his side like a sword. "Go." He ordered. "Get help. Find Glynda... Find Ironwood... Find Qrow. This tower mustn't fall." He rumbled.
"Ah..." Aldric groaned from the ground. "Don't count us out yet, Professor. We've still got an ass kicking left in us."
Pyrrha nodded, steeling herself and summoning her weapons, "we can help!"
To which, Ozpin shook his head. "No. You would only get in the way. Now go!" He yelled, accompanying a brief quake of the earth beneath their feet.
Pyrrha looked uncertain, but she could sense just as Aldric could the power radiating off of the two here, and knew as much as she didn't want to that the Headmaster was right. So she grabbed Aldric's arm and hauled him to his feet; he grabbed his shield and together the two sprinted out of the vault. Cinder, her smirk still etched firmly upon her face, watched as the two left, the fiery energy still radiating out of her eyes now beginning to swirl away, vanishing.
The two reached the elevator, and Aldric elbowed the button to send them up before dropping to the ground. "Ugh... Shit!" He coughed. "You okay?"
Pyrrha shook her head, an astonished expression overriding everything else. "Ash, you just got shot by lightning!"
Aldric flexed the fingers of his mechanical hand, "yeah... Easily the second worst hit I've ever taken." He chuckled. "Gonna take, like... A thousand Mommy kisses to make it better." He leaned his head back against the wall, watching Cinder and Ozpin speak to eachother as they slowly left his radar range.
"How..." Pyrrha looked on, "how can you still make jokes at a time like this?"
"Because panicking won't do anyone any good, Pyrrha." Aldric said, looking down to his shield and adopting a pensive expression. "Now, I don't know who this 'Qrow' is, and I certainly don't have Atlas' headmaster's number in my scroll, but I got Goodwitch's ever since I started taking her lessons... So once we get above ground we'll call her and tell her that a goddess with a little 'g' is fighting the headmaster of a superhuman boarding school in an vault underneath the tower with a dragon flying around it."
Pyrrha snorted airily, shaking her head, before she stowed her weapons on her back and held out a hand. Aldric took it and let her pull him to his feet, she wrapped her arm around his chest and helped him stay standing as the elevator reached ground level and let them out. The two of them rushed through the now ruined, scorched front lobby, and when they got outside, they found that said sky was filled with damaged and flaming airships, tens of thousands of flying Grimm, and that Beacon's own grounds were flooded with them.
"I mean..." Aldric grunted, "this really got out of hand fast." He stood up, letting go of Pyrrha and digging for his scroll. "Goodwitch, Goodwitch, Good-" The ground shook, violently this time; Pyrrha and Aldric whipped around to see a plume of fire make it halfway up Beacon tower before fizzling out, and of the two sources of unyielding power beneath them, only one remained.
"Ozpin..." Pyrrha whispered.
Aldric lowered his eyes from the tower, turning around to look past the abandoned grounds, the random rushing Grimm, the abandoned rocket lockets, and instead out to Vale, eyes going wide as 'Goud' realized there was no way they'd get help in time.
Welp... Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for. Aldric frowned, then turned to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha." He said, attracting her frightened, green eyes. "Take this." Aldric handed her his shield.
Pyrrha blinked, not comprehending what was happening, as she looked down at the shield being thrust into her arms, then back up at Aldric. "Ash -"
"I am not lying when I say you deserve it a lot more than I do." He rumbled, voice low and barely carrying between the two. "She's treated me well. You do the same, and it'll reciprocate."
It dawned on Pyrrha what her friend was doing. "Ash - no!" She gasped, trying to push the shield back, as the ground shook again, and the dragon swooped by overhead.
But Aldric shook his head, "Pyrrha... As much as my faith in Ozpin has been shaken, the fact of the matter is he still chose you. Not me, not Ruby, or Yang, or Ecru, or Nora, or anyone else - he chose you." He forced the shield back to her, its bright star facing him, but cast in the shadows the two made together under the pale moon. "Because you embody what this shield represents, and..." He looked up at the dragon. "And the world - both of them - are going to need that, real soon." He quietly used his semblance to open up the rocket locker behind her, "they're going to need you."
Pyrrha was beside herself, tears now openly leaking out of the corners of her eyes. "No, Ash we can -"
But 'Ash' grinned, "no, Pyrrha. This is the only way." He let go of the shield, and Pyrrha limply kept it in her hands, Aldric took a few steps towards the tower, and she tried to follow, but his semblance kept her feet anchored to the ground. He paused, then turned back to her, a somber frown on his face as he let go of her feet and waved her to him with a twitch of his hands. She dashed forward, thinking he'd changed his mind, but was stopped when Aldric reached out and poked her in the head with two of his fingers.
"I'm sorry, Pyrrha." He said, the frown turning to a regretful smile. He winked, "maybe next time." He then pushed.
With a telekinetic heave to help it out, she flew into into the locker and it was forced shut. Immediately she cried out in despair, and he felt her trying to force it open with her own semblance, which brought a morose smile to his face, as he merely increased the strength of his telekinetic hold on the door. "Go." He called out, "find Ruby. Hell, find Jaune. You three together, your teams... Ain't a damn thing you can't do. You're going to unite this world, Pyrrha, you're going to end this war... And I'm going to buy you the time to do it." And he gave the air a light under-handed jab, telekinetically punching the buttons that would launch the locker high into the air.
The last thing he heard from Pyrrha were her cries of protest, begging to let her take his place.
Now was time to face the music, and above so many other thoughts in his head was one single, overriding fear: How much of his meeting last night had Cinder listened to? Was their little performance still on? Or had the game changed?
I suppose... All I can do is hope for the best, at this point. Try my best to kill her if I've been made. Now, let's take stock. He thought, running his hands over his utility belt. Bag of tricks... He dug out the Power Glove vial he'd gone far too long without wearing, and slathered it on his hands, giving them a silvery, viscous sheen. Check. He felt inside of him, eyes briefly melting into an onyx shade before going back to their gunmetal gray. Powers I hardly understand after a year... Check. He sighed. Conclusion?... Fuck. There was only one thing he truly had to rely on, right now, that Cinder couldn't counter with her own powers: His semblance, telekinesis. What can I do with that, though?
A beat.
Well... What can't I do? Uranium, steel, the vibranium hugging his body, oxygen, fire, lightning, even if he couldn't use his magic, even if the belt was locked off to Goud, he had options. All matter had the same building blocks, and since day one, he'd been working to get to where he is now - able to take ahold of those building blocks and change them to his whim, even if he wasn't nearly as good as he'd wanted to be.
After all, telekinesis was defined as the manipulation of objects with the mind. Pyrokinesis was the ability to create and manipulate fire. Illusions, the ability to bend light and warp sound to suit one's desires. Once, this was considered the stuff of fiction, and as such, no one believed it was possible, or even believed in the nigh illimitable possibilities such skills would allow. Aldric, however, had learned much, much differently during his time in this new world. Awakening his abilities and being exposed to many others had been trials in and of themselves, to say nothing of the training it took to hone his own to the degree he did, and in the time he'd had to do it, too, but the result was nothing short of fantastic. Everything he lacked in strength, he made up for in skill. Creativity. Lateral thinking.
Unfortunately for Aldric, as he watched a small flying metal deathtrap of a locker blast through the air under its own power, he wasn't entirely certain if his skill would measure up. Certainly, he thought, he was powerful, but there was a definite hierarchy in this world, and no matter what anyone said, experience ensured that even now he wasn't entirely certain of his position in the pecking order, at the moment. Perhaps if he'd had more time, time for his body to adapt, for his powers to age, for him to develop a complete understanding and a far lesser fear of them, things would have been different, but he'd hardly had two years to go from Clark Kent to Superman. He'd had to learn fast, and sacrifices thusly had to be made.
The dark-haired man watched silently as the locker hurtled through the sky, containing within it a person who, very soon, would gain the ability to change the world through sheer convenience of existing. Sure, he'd done a lot of things these last eighteen months, some overt and some not quite as, some stupid, some and intelligent, but this had been the first change he'd gone out of his way to make.
Well... Thought Aldric, as he wiped through his shaggy hair, a hand that reflected the moon above with a metallic sheen. That's you taken care of.
He turned up to Beacon Tower, the enormous building that loomed above him and likely was the man-made roof of the world.
But how do I take care of you? He thought, as he watched a bright flare of red-orange light begin to raise through the building, hurtling upwards, towards the office of the academy's likely deceased headmaster. Placing his hands in the pockets of his cassock, Aldric casually strolled towards the base of the tower, humming whatever it was that struck his fancy as he made his way inside, very well aware that he was likely, and literally, marching to his death.
I guess I'll just have to wing it. He thought, as he entered the abandoned, trashed tower.
The tower's lobby looked like a tornado had gone through it, with large scorch marks blackening the area around the elevator behind the main receptionist's desk. To his left and right were the waiting areas, the televisions blank and the couches overturned. He thought he heard running water, but he couldn't see any broken fountains, or anything the like. Ignoring most of the devastation, Aldric entered the trashed elevator. In the center of the floor was a large, boulder-sized hole, warped and bent as if it had been melted. Looking up in the cramped space showed a similar hole in the lift's ceiling.
Oh yeah... Lady in red came through here. Thought the teen, as he removed his right hand from his coat and held it out in front of him, his gray palm facing the ground.
He snorted. "Going up..." And with a brief frown, the elevator began the long ascent. A loud, horrendous grinding noise accompanied the trip, sparks flying in all directions.
It took him two minutes to make it to the top, and after forcing the door to the headmaster's office open, he found his goal simply standing there, waiting for him, a smug smirk pasted across her face, her deep orange eyes glowing with energy, and her raven hair falling in thick curls over her shoulders. Replacing his hand in his coat, the dark-haired fighter strolled inside.
"Hey, Hot Stuff." Said Aldric, "am I too late?"
She regarded him with a curious glance, "I must admit, I expected to see the other one." The young woman said, as she smoothed out a wrinkle in her tight, form-fitting red dress.
"I gave her the night off." Said Aldric, as, outside, a massive, demonic dragon with a black visage and a pale white exoskeleton detached from the building and took off, its enormous wings creating loud gale-force gusts of wind with every beat, as it circled the tower. "Like your pet. Always wanted a dragon."
"What do you, of all people, expect to accomplish by coming here?" The woman taunted, "it is pointless. We've won. I have the Fall Maiden's abilities... Her power. Even you cannot stand to me." She smirked.
Aldric frowned, and shrugged his shoulders, leaning up against the wall as he did so. "You know... That's one thing I've noticed time and time again, during my brief tenure here. You all operate on the idea that power is everything. The strong survive, the weak die out. You are correct in thinking that you have more power than me - hell, right now you probably have more power than I ever will..." A pause, "unless I survive, then I'll have time to see how big that bonfire is, but I digress.
"There's one thing you guys don't quite understand... One thing that would have gotten the red-head killed, had I let her come up here. The best counter for raw power, is skill." He said, as his blue eyes slowly darkened to a deep, dark onyx. "You treat science and aura as two different subjects. Mutually exclusive. Despite having all of the tools necessary to prove that wrong six ways from Sunday." He lifted his metallic fist, inspecting it with a blank expression.
"I was blessed, when I figured out what my semblance was. I was blessed even more when the good witch of the south came out of the woodwork and taught me some tricks. Very powerful, indeed." He lowered his hand to the zipper on his overcoat, and began dragging it upwards, unfastening his coat and letting it fall around his ankles. "And yes, I am stalling." He added, as he shoved off from the wall and took a few steps towards the raven-haired woman. "From what I understand, I'm about to fight someone who got her powers right from God." He said, stretching his arms out.
The woman's smirk didn't falter, but he did notice, just faintly, how it drew away from her eyes. "You could leave, you know. Few would know. Fewer still would fault you."
"You kidding?" He chuckled, "I would. She would... Probably." Aldric countered, running a gray, metallic hand through his shoulder-length hair. "I never leave a job half done. Method acting, Shalashaska, and all that. Besides, you may be more powerful than me... May have always been... May always will be. We both know the biggest thing working against me was always time... But what you have, in overwhelming power, you lack in skill. Your body is only used to half of the power you currently possess, and even then, it's a stretch.
"Me, however, I've bled, sweat, and worked for everything I can do, and I'll let you in on a secret... As I said before..." He said, as the dust on the ground, and the bits of metal from the destroyed elevator, all began to levitate around him, soon swirling around him as if orbiting his body. "The greatest counter for strength, is skill." Some of the items began to disintegrate, flaking away like embers from a fire. "All the power in the universe cannot help you if you cannot hit the man you want to kill.
"So tell me... You who fashion yourself a goddess." Said Aldric, as he cracked his gray, sheening knuckles, and crouched down low into a fighting stance, as a wide grin began to grow across his face.
"Do you bleed?"
The woman's eyes narrowed, and she began to levitate, as the very air around her distorted from the sheer heat she was generating. Her eyes were covered in massive auras of fire, their shape reminiscent of the wings of a butterfly. The ground underneath them, and the air around them, shimmered and shook as the two combatants pulled out all of the stops, and drew all of their strength, one to be rid of a pest as fast as possible, and one in the hopes that he may, just may, be able to survive this whole ordeal. All across the academy, and even down in the kingdom, many paused a moment and turned their heads to Beacon Tower, as the Fall Maiden, and Beacon's Master, drew out everything they had. A flaming bonfire versus a napalm campfire, their combined energies were enough such that even civilians, with little aura to speak of, could feel something was off. Aldric felt the weight of the raven-haired Fall Maiden's power crushing him, but he didn't let his grin falter, as he rang the bell.
"You will." And the two launched at each other.