Chapter 81
How to make a Super Saiyan.
Step one: Take someone that was already incredibly powerful. Put them in a stressful situation.
Step two: Introduce a huge amount of psychological and emotional stress and damage upon that person, with the most effective way being killing someone they cared about. For better results, let it build up over a long period of time. Bonus points if the buildup is related to fear and anxiety over not knowing the fate of said loved one. As a random example.
Step three: Watch the literal fireworks and prepare for the fight of one's life.
If any of that sounded familiar, it was because Nebo Aldric had done all of those things to Yang Xiao Long intentionally, and it'd had the desired effect. He'd wanted her angry, wanted to give her something to hate so she would snap out of her funk, but he hadn't quite expected how effective his method would be. The young woman had literally exploded in rage and fury, and all of it was directed to the masked man directly responsible for her sister's death.
She launched herself at Aldric like a rocket, the ground exploding beneath her and showering her allies behind her as she blasted forward. Aldric grunted, not even having a second to brace his legs behind him and bring up his arms - both vibranium shields expanding in front of them, just finishing as she reached him and threw her fist forward with a great roar. Her fist slammed into Aldric's overlapped shields and, though the damage was mitigated by the practically magical metal, Aldric was still pushed back several feet and a shockwave shot out, bowling over several of the onlookers to their fight, while the others watched, in shock, or in awe, of the power that had been wrenched out of the fiery brawler they knew and loved.
Yang's next attack came almost too fast for Aldric to even see it, as her momentum finally died down and her feet touched the ground - with her metal hand still pinned to Aldric's shields, she clenched her fleshy fist at her hip, and brought it up in a wide uppercut, ducking it beneath Aldric's shields and bringing it on home into the Master's gut. The damage Aldric felt was minimal - the two layers of armor, and the aura shields he'd poured all of his powers into, had nullified practically all of it, but as he'd learned so many times in the past, they could do nothing against the transfer of force and momentum.
Aldric was sent flying, slamming into Haven's great doors with a grunt. His head bounced off of the doors, dizzying him enough that he couldn't react to Yang's follow up - a fiery fist to his chest that slammed him into the doors again. She repeated this process with a haymaker to the left side of Aldric's face, an uppercut to his jaw, a straight to his chest, each one echoing off of him, slamming him into the academy's great doors, and bouncing him off. Aldric had to act on instinct when Yang pivoted for her next attack - and he ducked underneath her and spun around her side as her fist buried itself into the door, tearing a great groove into it as her strength practically blew it to pieces, fire spewing out of the edges of the fissure she left behind when she tore it out. Aldric sprang to his feet, lunging forward and grabbing Yang by her hair, yanking her head back as he slammed his foot into her back - but where he had hoped to feel it dig into her spine, instead all that happened was that it dug into the fire and flames surrounding her and left her completely unharmed.
This gave her ample opportunity to twist around and throw another punch at him, this one aimed at his head. Aldric bobbed out of the way, but didn't miss the fact that the force of the blow he'd just barely missed sent a shockwave up and into the ceiling, tearing a chunk out of it and causing debris to fall. He let go of Yang as the thoughts 'I'm gonna die!' filled his head; he let her take the offensive, falling back a step as he sensed the remainder of team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Qrow recovering from the after effects of Yang's initial display. He, however, couldn't hear any of the words they exchanged over the rage-filled roars coming out of Yang's chest, and he had to deflect another punch aimed at his head, the fist scraping off of his shield and opening up Yang's core. Aldric took his opportunity and smashed his fist into Yang's open gut, but for all the good it did he may as well have tried tickling her with a feather - her emotion fueled semblance was getting an ample supply of fuel, enough to send it into overdrive, and it was pouring all of that extra energy into two places: Her strength, and her aura. Even if he hadn't poured all of his power into his shields just to ensure he'd last the fight against everyone here, he doubted he'd make a dent in it, but now? With little but minorly enhanced strength, an impenetrable suit, a couple shields, and a cybernetic arm?
She was, effectively, Broly, to his Captain America.
The only good news was that the rage clouding her mind was causing her to throw grace, style, and skill out the window - she was completely consumed by attacking and killing Aldric. Unfortunately, that didn't mean this fight was any easier - Aldric was sure all the vibranium in the world wouldn't blunt those attacks enough, he had to keep his energy diverted to his defenses. Worse was that as he was trying to think up a plan, he saw the fruits to the rest of the League's conversation - while unable to hear or understand them, he figured out what they were saying well enough when JNPR split off to rush for the elevator leading to the vault: Let Yang deal with Aldric, so they could deal with Cinder.
Well, Aldric couldn't have that - so when Yang came in for the next attack, Aldric hopped up into the air and crossed his arms in front of his head. Yang's fiery fist smashed into his shields, and with nothing to brace him against the impact, he was sent flying back like a baseball struck by a bat. He flipped over, colliding with the statue feet-first, just as JNPR's leader reached it. Aldric looked up and locked eyes with Jaune through his mask, and, having come so fast and out of nowhere, Jaune was torn between so many possible reactions to Aldric's sudden presence that he didn't know which one to pick.
So Aldric provided him with one, speaking just loudly enough that his voice carried over the sound of feet smashing apart concrete and causing the ground to shake:
"Move."
Pyrrha picked up on it, her head twisting around and seeing Yang charging towards them - her uncle and the remains of her team having dove out of the way. Pyrrha's semblance flared and she scattered her team to the winds, just as passed them by in her bullet-like advance towards Aldric. Aldric dropped himself from the statue and Yang smashed her fist into the area Aldric's head had just occupied - the resultant impact causing the statue to explode in a cloud of dust and fire, effectively burying the elevator and sealing it off for the time being.
Aldric dropped to the ground and rolled around Yang, he tried fruitlessly to damage her, but his two punches on her back just bounced off of her like a rock would bounce off of a tank. She swung around, her arm extended, and smashed it into Aldric in a vicious backhand. Aldric grunted as he was sent sprawling across the ground, and had to roll out of the way to avoid Yang's next attack - her fist buried into the ground, causing he ground to shake so hard that dust fell from the ceilings above and the academy walls began to groan.
Bury her? No, she'll get out. Aldric hopped up to his feet and caught a punch to his left shield, the strength great enough that he couldn't push it away or parry - he was instead pushed back himself. Can I outlast her? How long can she keep this up? He hopped up and planted his boot on Yang's face; the attack did everything he expected it to, but it at least provided him a springboard from which to leap off of her and build some distance.
She was hot on pursuit, leaving Aldric no time at all to come up with any sort of plan. She smashed her fist into Aldric's side, used the recoil of her weapon going off to snap it back, and then jackhammer it back into the side of his chest, before she brought up her off hand and rammed it into Aldric's face like a battering ram. As Aldric recoiled from the attack, he found her other fist rushing to meet his head, bouncing it back to the other side like a punching bag. He had to duck underneath a right cross and then bend out of the way to avoid a knee that would have slammed into his nose; he sensed the League gathering together again, and could just barely hear raised, hurried voices over Yang's raging aura and loud voice. He sprang back to his feet and bobbed out of the way of Yang throwing a straight left at him - before he wrapped both hands around Yang's arm and, with a heave and a loud grunt, he hauled Yang over his shoulder and slammed her into the ground like a wrecking ball.
She barely even registered it, instead grabbing at the chin of his helmet and wrenching him down - forcing him to headbutt her, twice, before she threw him away as easily as he'd done her. As Aldric recovered from what was becoming his longest ragdoll performance to date, he noticed that Blake had perked up at Yang's display, the barest flicker of life appearing in her eyes - as though she'd seen something for the first time. She reached for Weiss, trying to get her attention as it clicked for Aldric what it was - she remembered what his weakness was: If something got through, or took off, his mask, he was vulnerable.
And that provided him an idea - his one shot at taking Yang out. If it worked, she'd lose all her steam and he'd be able to lay her out. If it didn't, it may make her worse, and he'd effectively be dead.
Aldric groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. He sensed Yang was scrambling to do the same, and in the brief few seconds he had, he pushed his radar down - past the bedrock foundations of Haven and into its vault, and what he saw caused his spirits to sink: Less time had passed than he'd thought, Cinder, Raven, and Vernal had just made it down there and they were approaching the magic door now.
He shook some of the fog from his head and snapped back to action as Yang came hurtling in with a flame-coated superman punch. Aldric jerked his upper body backwards, causing Yang to miss by inches - and from there he grabbed her arm with both hands and shoved in the direction of her momentum, causing her to stumble off to the side. She, however, thrust both arms forward and detonated her weapons - causing her to fly back to him and smash her back into his front like a runaway boulder.
"The mask!" Aldric heard distantly, "Yang! His head!"
Somewhere, the words given to Weiss from the still mostly despondent Blake resonated with Yang, and when she straddled Aldric, that's what she started pummeling. Each fist slammed into his face with the force of a speeding dump truck, each impact caused the ground to shake and a crater to form around them. Aldric's head bounced off the ground, snapped left and right, the shock dulling his vision and causing pain to creep up his neck. For its worth, his aura was still taking its licks, but it had limits - and his head wasn't covered by vibranium, meaning while no damage bled through, the pain did, and Yang was wailing on him like the Hulk.
The first crack went missed by Aldric - but the second one, which split his visor down the middle, caught his attention real fast. He cursed, brought his hands up to defend himself, but Yang didn't care and just kept punching - each punch accompanied by an angry grunt, just now bouncing off of his arms, which themselves bounced off of his face, only worsening the issue at hand. Aldric knew he had to get Yang off of him - so he put his cards on the table and switched tactics, going from defense to offense.
In one rapid sequence, he took all of his aura from his shields and put it back in his semblance. Yang got one good punch in from that and it slipped in between his arms - and without his aura to protect it, it practically detonated his helmet. From there, Aldric brought one hand back and then shot it back forward, smashing his fist into Yang's face, and for the first time actually appearing to damage her as his full, usual strength was thrown into it - Yang's neck craned for the second before she was thrown off of Aldric; she hit the edge of the crater and stabilized herself to stop from rolling, as Aldric leapt to his feet, pieces of alien metal and glass streaming from his now bare head, as he straightened up, shaking his head and gasping for air.
Looking over his shoulder, Aldric saw that Yang had quite literally dug them into a hole - they were several feet into the ground, low enough that the others were having to rush over to get a look at them. This made him grin, which he wiped away when he turned back to Yang as she finished sliding to the bottom of her crater. She hauled herself back to her feet, body streaming golden fire and chest rising and falling as she gasped for air, her back hunched, fists clenched, and eyes blank with rage as she stared Aldric down.
She took one step forward, and then paused - as she really looked at Aldric.
With his helmet having been destroyed, that meant she saw his face.
She saw Goud Etiolate's face.
It had the exact effect he wanted: She blinked, and in that blink, her eyes, which up until now had been soulless glowing red masses of rage, literally lost their luster as they bled back to two red orbs. She blinked again, hard, shaking her head, as the others reached the edge of the crater - but they were to Aldric's back, so all they could see was Yang losing steam, not why.
"What?" She breathed, the fire dying down as she looked at the man who had pretended to be her friend, the man she thought dead. "A -" And just as she vocalized it, just as she accepted what she was seeing, but in that space before she could fully process it, Aldric struck.
He launched himself at Yang, his fist and the jagged, pointed edge of his shield digging into her face like a piledriver. Without the boundless emotion that had been fueling her, this meant that Aldric's attack not only did damage, but with his full power behind it, it actively hurt. She was buried back into the wall of the crater again and didn't move - be it from the sheer shock of what she'd seen causing her brain to grind to a halt, or because Aldric had done enough damage to stun her, he didn't know, but he capitalized on it regardless and paid her back for her ground-pounding earlier - rushing up to her and slamming his boot onto her leg. Yang was a boxer - this was just how he'd managed to turn the tide the first time he fought: If he took her legs from her, she couldn't put her full body into her punches anymore.
Once, twice, three times he stomped on Yang's leg, each one sending a cloud of dust into the air until, when compounded with the fallout of Yang's rage-state, they were enshrouded in a thick cloud of dust and debris. Aldric slammed down on Yang's leg again, and she finally snapped out of her fugue - lunging forward and smashing her fist into Aldric's face. While it didn't have even a fraction of the force it had had behind it just moments ago, it was still Yang he was facing, and Aldric hadn't pushed his power back into his shields - so this punch hurt bad. His entire body stumbled to the side from the force of it, and he had to twist around and fall to his knees, cowering behind his twin shields to hide from Yang's next attack, and pour his energy back into his aura.
She pounded the shields twice before Aldric ducked even lower and lunged at her - tackling her knees and taking her legs out from underneath her, bringing them both to the ground, but now with Aldric on top of the brawler. He used what paltry strength remained in his semblance to grab Yang's arms and wrench them above her head, whereupon he physically grabbed them with his organic hand, pinning them there while his metal hand rained down blows directly on her face.
Above them, at the edge of the crater, all the League could make of the fight was the cloud of debris, and the sound of metal striking flesh over and over again. Qrow had noticed Aldric's mask having been destroyed and had put together its relationship to Yang's drop in power - and was preparing to leap into the fight. He would have, too, had the cloud not begun to clear just as he bent his knees; he paused and watched as two individuals, one on the ground and one standing over the other, were revealed at the deepest part of the crater.
His heart dropped, as Jaune gasped and Pyrrha clenched the straps of her shield tighter, when it was revealed that the victor of this duel was Yang's opponent, Blake's assailant, and Ruby's abductor. He stood, with his back to them, over Yang - whose face and nose were bloodied and whose eyes were glazed over, unconscious. He'd won, but they had the advantage of numbers, and now Yang wasn't as much a danger to them as she was to the no-longer-masked man she'd been fighting.
Jaune stepped forward, "we outnumber you!" He called out, causing the man - who had been looking down at the unconscious woman below him - to snap his head up, his long, sweat and soot-covered hair flailing about wildly when he did so. "If you surrender..." Jaune said through clenched teeth, "even..." He gasped, "even if you don't deserve it..." As much as he thought this man deserved terrible things to happen to him for the things he'd done, Jaune was at least level-headed enough to know that killing him wasn't good from any angle, not the least of which because he had to have information on Salem and her operations. "We'll..."
Aldric let them have their final, brief moment in which everything was as simple as good guys and bad guys. The last chance they would have when all they needed was just to hate the other guy, and everything was as complex as us versus them. When that moment was done, in the space between Jaune's words, he turned to face them, leering up at them from behind a frown, his chin freely bleeding from the good hit Yang had gotten on it earlier.
"Treat..." Jaune continued on momentum, before he registered what he was looking at. "You..." Pyrrha was next, as she stared uncomprehendingly down at Aldric. "Fairly..." And, as Aldric predicted, Qrow let his own fury finally bleed through in full force.
"Ash?" He heard Weiss say, as Nora and Ren exchanged glances.
Aldric leapt right into the lion's den - slamming his shoulder into Qrow and splitting the group down the middle. As they surged backwards, Qrow vanished - replaced by his avian likeness, and leaving Aldric to hit the ground alone. Aldric rolled to a halt and twisted around - to find, and get hit by, a grenade launched by Nora. It detonated right in front of his chest, blanketing him in smoke and charring his shields, but leaving him otherwise unharmed as Jaune tried to hold back the Valkyrie.
"It's Ash!" He pleaded, "we can't! There's got to be something wrong with him!"
I hate it when a plan comes together... Aldric thought, holding his right hand out to his side. Wordlessly he let the lightsaber attached to his hip fly and settle into his hand, and then he activated it with a Zhoom!
"Jaune, it may be him, but right now, he is standing between us and Haven's relic." Aldric heard Ren rationalize, albeit reluctantly, as the amassed group of rookie huntsmen and huntresses saw first nothing but a pillar of red light in the cloud of black smoke left by Nora's grenade, and then saw Aldric emerge from it.
Aldric was perfectly fine with letting them talk - every second they did so was one less second they were wailing on him, and one second closer to Cinder being finished downstairs.
Unfortunately, while Jaune argued with his team's resident ninja, their warrior put Ren's words to action, and Pyrrha charged Aldric, her face a reluctant grimace hidden behind his shield. She either didn't hear or completely ignored Jaune's plea as she charged the Master, who fell back a step, lightsaber held up high behind him, ready to come down on a moment's notice. However, as Pyrrha reached him, Qrow reappeared - diving in as a bird, and reemerging as a human, dropping right on Aldric's arm, heavy enough to jar the blade from his hand. Aldric spared Qrow a single glance before he snapped back to Pyrrha, who thrust her spear into Aldric's stomach - his three layers of defenses blunted the attack, but the wind was still pushed out of his gut.
He grabbed for her spear, but Pyrrha had been and always would be faster and more skilled them him - she pulled her spear back and twisted it around, collapsing it into a sword, lunging towards Aldric, and spinning into an attack, all in one smooth motion. She, however, slashed at Aldric's chest instead of his head - either out of reluctance due to who he was to her, or out of ignorance, he couldn't say, but the result was the same - he stumbled to the side a step, right into Qrow's attack. Qrow didn't have such reluctances, he had grievances and almost two years of pent up aggression he wanted to work out and to him, this would be the only chance he'd ever get to do so - so he went for Aldric's face.
Aldric grunted, falling behind one of his arms to block the downward slice. He sensed Jaune still arguing with the others, though over the sounds of his new fight the team leader's words drowned away, but he could tell it was fruitless - Weiss, though visibly carrying the same reluctance and grim determination as Pyrrha, charged past Jaune and towards the fray. Aldric shoved Qrow's blade off of his collapsed shield and lunged forward - sending his fist into Qrow's collarbone. Pyrrha, however, capitalized on all of Aldric's balance now being on his front leg, and jabbed at the back of his knee with the edge of her shield, causing Aldric to fall to his knees.
This opened him up to a two-front assault from Pyrrha and Qrow, and gave him a perfect view of Weiss' advance. Both of his arms raised, both shields unfolded, Aldric protected himself from the heavy cuts and jabs being rained down on him from the warrior and the former bandit, as he used his weakened semblance to grab at his lightsaber. Qrow heard it reactivate as it flew through the air and he hopped backwards just as it reached Aldric's waiting arm - Pyrrha ducked underneath Aldric's wide, sweeping swing, with Aldric having felt her semblance running through the excited electrons that made the blade, but he hadn't intended to hit her - only clear some space so he could turn to and parry Weiss' quick and precise thrust at his chest, twisting his bright red sword into her snowy-white sabre and pushing it out of the way.
Qrow took his chance and, with both hands gripping his blade, swung it heavily at Aldric's - the weight and speed of the attack causing Aldric's arm to fly wide, but Aldric twisted into the momentum transferred to his body and brought his fist and his shield into Qrow's face, causing Qrow to stumble back a step. Pyrrha literally sprang into action, cutting first at Aldric's legs with her sword, then spinning it around into a spear and jabbing at his back as Aldric sensed Nora throw her head back and forth in a 'fuck this' motion and charge into battle - followed soon after by Ren, leaving only Jaune and Blake as the sole indecisive combatants.
It didn't last as long as Aldric wanted, but he also knew from experience that everyone except Qrow was pulling their punches, so it was at least still mostly going according to plan: No one knew what to make of the Ash variable, and were pretty much fighting out of a lack of better options.
Aldric was pushed forward into Qrow, whose now glowing-hot blade was dragged upwards across his chest, causing him to fall back a step, where Ren came in, pistols spraying bullets into Aldric's back as he sliced away at it. Weiss hopped into the air and then leapt off of a great white glyph, surging towards Aldric, her sword extended and soon sent right into his side, pushing him to the side - where Nora came screaming in with her hammer, which she planted as firmly as she could on the side of Aldric's head, but while Aldric saw stars, he used the recoil from one of the shells inside the hammer exploding to his advantage - and flew straight back into the increasingly large pile of people. Most of them backed out of the way of Aldric's blade, but not Pyrrha - she intercepted the attack Aldric had meant for Ren by throwing her shield into Aldric's gut.
He flew wildly through the air, landing several feet away as the shield returned to the warrior. He straightened up, red stick of plasma held aloft as he stared down the assembled fighters in front of him.
For her worth, Pyrrha tried now that the momentum of their previous group-effort was lost. "Ash..." She said from behind Old Glory, barely even winded. "Ash, it's me - it's us!" She tried, a distinct waver to her voice.
Aldric ignored her, directing his senses back down to the vault, and seeing Cinder engaged with Raven, her own lightsaber burning brightly and the entire vault trembling around them as they threw themselves at each other. Vernal was down for the count, unconscious in front of the door that led to the Relic; for all Cinder had learned, it appeared she'd still not seen through Raven's trick and was paying for it.
Aldric's radar snapped back where it belonged when Weiss said, "what did they do to you?"
Aldric slowly relaxed his posture, letting his shoulders fall and lowering his arms, as he twisted his blade into a reverse grip. He swiped his hand through his hair, slicking it back, and then wiping his hand across his bloody chin, smearing it across him and appearing for all intents and purposes as though he were actually going to talk; but, as quick as a flash, he was back at it - he threw his blade at them like a spear. Pyrrha threw herself in front of the group, hiding behind her shield even as her body glowed black.
She successfully stopped the lightsaber, but that had merely been a distraction - Aldric grabbed some of the debris made by him and Yang and threw that at the others as he charged forward. They scattered as he'd hoped, but the ones that were still together were Pyrrha and Weiss, the two people who were not only trained in swordfighting, but were also the only ones that could reliably nullify the damage his blade could do, either through abilities like Pyrrha, or resources like Weiss' dust cartridges.
Can't win 'em all. Aldric thought, reaching his blade, plucking it out of the air, and kicking at Pyrrha's shield, his foot landing perfectly on the star, and pushing her back.
Aldric lunged towards Weiss, who expertly twisted out of the way of his thrust and countered with a slash at Aldric's head. Aldric backhanded her sword out of the way as he sensed a glyph spin to life on the ground behind him, but he ignored it and instead brought the lightsaber down towards Weiss' shoulder. Aldric sensed the cyllinder in her blade twist around until the electric dust was in the barrel, and just a moment later Weiss' now electrified sword parried his and then cut at his back. His entire body seized up as electricity surged through it, and this bought time for Pyrrha to slam her shield into Aldric's face - causing him to fall back into a waiting Ren, who wrapped his arms around Aldric's gut and executed a perfect suplex, slamming Aldric into the ground before Ren deftly began slicing away at any parts of the Master he could reach, before just as quickly rolling out of Aldric's retaliatory swing of his blade.
But, then came Nora - who slammed her hammer into Aldric's wrist, throwing it and his blade onto the ground again, whereupon she followed it up with another one that buried her hammer and Aldric's arm several inches into the ground. Aldric and Nora met eyes for a second after this, and Aldric saw her grin before she pulled the trigger and detonated one of the grenades in her hammer, sending her flying away, just as -
"JESUS!" Was all Aldric could call out as a gigantic ghostly suit of armor came charging forward, swinging its claymore down like an executioner. Never having really considered that variable when it came to Weiss' semblance, Aldric had to adapt on the fly - rolling out of the way, but the pale white knight followed it up with a horizontal slice that Aldric had to bring his own blade up to defend against.
Fortunately, Aldric's blade cleaved through the knight's like a boulder parted a river. Unfortunately, the knight reacted pretty quickly to this development, spinning into its own momentum and backhanding Aldric with a closed fist, almost sending Aldric sprawled across the ground. Aldric stumbled forward but just barely managed to regain his footing and get back upright - only for Qrow to come flying in, using the same trick as last time to build speed as a bird, and turn back into a human - his blade thrusting right for Aldric's throat.
Aldric tried to defend himself with his lightsaber, but Pyrrha grabbed ahold of it with her semblance, as Nora launched herself past the warrior with another detonated grenade. Aldric's blade slipped out of his hand, a snarling Qrow's sword dug itself viciously into the aura protecting Aldric's throat, and Nora came flying in to try and flatten Aldric to the ground by smashing the top of his head. She, however, was a moment too slow - and Aldric adapted as fast as he could, ceasing his resisting of Qrow's momentum and allowing him to fall back. This put Qrow right in the path of Nora's attack, and in a panic, she stopped mid-swing, but this led to the two of them colliding with eachother and flying halfway across Haven's main hall.
Aldric would have tried taking back his blade, but a combination of Pyrrha throwing it away with her semblance, Weiss coming in from one side, and her knight coming in from the other, put those thoughts as far from Aldric's mind as they could possibly be. In a split second, Aldric assessed his choices - take the attack and get pinned down again, dive forward and get attacked by Pyrrha and Ren, or dive backwards and get attacked by Qrow and Nora once they recovered.
So Aldric took a proverbial third option - and dove forward, but used his semblance to carry him past Pyrrha and Ren. He hit the ground running as the Knight buried its half-melted blade into the ground with a loud crash, located his lightsaber with his Radar, and called it back to him as he charged for Blake and Jaune. Blake was paralyzed by any combination of factors, but Jaune - Jaune moved faster than Aldric thought he was capable of. He leapt right in Aldric's way, the Hylian shield Aldric had bequeathed to him raised high, ready for Aldric to bring his blade down on it and stop it wholesale.
"Ash!" Jaune yelled out, "Ash, it's us! It's your friends!" He tried as Aldric's feet touched the ground and the others started rushing over.
Aldric didn't respond to him, he instead kicked underneath Jaune's shield, nailing the knight in the knee. This caused Jaune to bend and twist over, opening him up for a downward swing from Aldric's blade - but a wild swipe from Jaune's own sword deflected Aldric's attack, even as Jaune kept with his momentum and fell face-first to the ground. Aldric kicked him in the gut and sent him sliding over the edge of the crater and down into it, as he advanced on Blake.
The faunus, trembling, clenched her jaw and drew her sword, but before she could take an action or Aldric could attack, a black glyph opened up in the ground below him, and Aldric found his gravity suddenly inverted. He was thrown at the ceiling until he left the Glyph's range, at which point he dropped - just in time for Ren to leap into the air and kick at Aldric's side, sending him down to Nora, who smashed his chest with her hammer and blasted him towards Pyrrha. Aldric recovered as Pyrrha tried to keep their impromptu human pinball game going, and twisted out of the way just as she tried to smack him with the broadside of her shield. With a little pulse from his semblance, he spun right over her and landed behind her, but when he tried to cut at her back with his sword, she bent out of the way, his glowing red blade missing her by centimeters.
She spun around like a dancer as Aldric sensed Weiss rushing towards Blake, Ren dipping into the crater to retrieve Jaune, and Nora and Qrow rushing towards him. He frowned and pushed forward on the attack, slicing at Pyrrha and forcing her to keep dodging or to take a hit. Keep dodging she did, but only until she could open up Aldric for an attack - which she did by broadsiding his sword-arm with her shield and sending it wide, hitting his shield-arm with her sword and setting it wide, and then she dropped down low, sliding her shield onto her back. Just as her knee hit the ground and Aldric overcame the momentum of her attack, Nora appeared behind her - foot already going for the center of Pyrrha's shield, and once it made purchase, Pyrrha twisted around and pushed as hard as she could, boosting Nora right at Aldric. Nora slammed her hammer hard enough into Aldric's chest that the sound of a bell's toll reverberated around the academy's hall.
Where Aldric expected to get sent flying again, however, he instead just barely saw an onyx outline cover his body - and then sensed the same around Pyrrha. He was held in place, not immobilized, but kept from flying off, and he realized why when a savagely grinning Nora brought her hammer around for a second attack, this one hitting the left side of Aldric's head. A third attack came from the right, before she lifted the hammer high above her head for a fourth - but here was when Aldric bit back; his semblance was weak due to him shunting its power into his defenses, but it wasn't eliminated entirely - and Nora's center of gravity was well above her head and behind her, all Aldric needed to do was push her and she'd stumble back, so that's what he did - a telekinetic pulse sending Nora reeling backwards and right into Pyrrha, who let go of Aldric to try and catch the Valkyrie.
Aldric got no reprieve however, as Qrow came in like a madman, swinging his blade in as many directions as he could, as fast as he could. Aldric couldn't keep up and he knew this, so instead he deactivated his blade and crossed his arms in front of his head, shields unfolded. He fell back a step and baded Qrow to follow him, and Qrow took the bait - with each step Aldric fell back, Qrow kept up the assault. Aldric allowed him until he sensed Qrow rear the blade and prepare to stab the Master, at which point he lunged to the side, assisted in the endeavor with a weak pulse of his semblance. Without his full power, Aldric didn't go as far as he would have liked or as far as he was used to, but he got the job done and dodged Qrow's sword - barely, as it scraped against his side and caused his aura to flare to life to protect him.
Aldric hit the ground, rolled, and then sprang back up to his feet, a pistol in his hand and pointed right at Qrow, who froze, halfway between wanting to dodge out of the way and charge at Aldric. But, fortune being the fickle creature it was, when Aldric pulled the trigger, it stayed stuck fast - the gun jammed, to Qrow's immense satisfaction. The former bandit charged Aldric and batted the pistol out of his hands, and then swung again to try and get at Aldric's scarred face, but the Master took this with aplomb, catching Qrow's blade and feeling it grind to a halt in his hand, it coming to a full stop just inches from his nose. Aldric then leaned to the side and pulled at Qrow, causing the man to stumble towards him - whereupon Aldric thrust his metal arm into Qrow's stomach, brought it back and slammed it into the side of his ribcage, before bringing it back again and ramming it into Qrow's cheek and finally letting him go.
Aldric would have pressed the attack, but he sensed and failed to avoid a pistol tied to a thin black ribbon wrapping itself around one his arms and his waist - binding his fleshy arm to his side and keeping him held fast. Pushing out his senses, he saw some fire had returned to Blake - not nearly what he had remembered once upon a time, but enough from what he guessed was a pep talk from Weiss to get the faunus in the fight.
If anyone's listening... Aldric thought as he twisted around to face her, only for Nora to come in and smash him in the chest - sending him back against Blake's pull, which pulled the ribbon taut, and eventually rubber-banded him right back at the faunus and the heiress next to her, who summoned her knight, ready to try and decapitate Aldric once he reached them. I'd really love for some fucking backup!
But, in its continuous quest to deny him happiness, the universe didn't answer - and Aldric was left to fend for himself when he reached the knight and it slammed its claymore into his chest like a wrecking ball hitting a plaster wall. Aldric hit the ground, coughing - and as he sensed Jaune and Ren climbing out of the crater, the Knight stepped on Aldric's legs and Nora came back and slammed her hammer into Aldric's free arm, pinning it, and him, to the ground.
You're just laughing at me. He thought to whatever God had decided to have fun today, as the battered Justice League surrounded him, and he considered his options.
"Is it really him?" He heard Weiss gasp.
"What's wrong with him? Why doesn't he recognize us?" Jaune asked anyone.
He could, A: Stay here, pinned to the ground, until Cinder finished her business downstairs and came back up to save his ass, which may be feasible, as a peek down below ground shown that she and Raven were having a standoff, haggard and bruised, but with Raven far worse off, their fight drawing rapidly to a close.
"Salem must've taken him." Qrow huffed, a hand pressed to his bruised chest. "Done something."
"You said he was dead!" Pyrrha threw at Qrow, "you said he had to be!"
"I thought he was!"
Weiss knelt over Aldric and took his face in one of her hands, forcibly turning it to her so she could look into his eyes. Aldric remained silent save for heavy breathing and the occasional grunt as he tried to break out of the binds that held him.
He could, B: Hedge all of his bets on the Legion conveniently deciding they were no longer needed to keep setting fires, and come in here at the eleventh hour to provide extra hands, but that relied on the Universe actually having some sympathy for him, and he felt he needed no explanation as to why he had no faith in that plan.
"Ash." Weiss said, earnestly. "It's me, it's Weiss - we're your friends. Talk to us, please!"
Jaune came up behind her, "let us help you!"
But Blake came in, her voice tense as she kept the hold on her ribbon. "I fought him when he took Ruby!" She grunted, arms straining to keep the ribbon tight. "I think Qrow is right... Something happened to him. They did something."
Pyrrha then knelt down next to Weiss, and took the hand of the arm pinned to his side in hers. "Ash, it's okay! We're not your enemies!"
Or option C: Risk horrendous injuries and intense physical exhaustion by evening the odds and taking the kid gloves off.
Yeah, there wasn't really a debate here.
Aldric closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose, and he sensed a brief flicker of hope in Pyrrha's eyes, but one of suspicion in Weiss', and resignation in Qrow's, as the man knew the fight wasn't quite yet over.
Aldric funneled the power back where it belonged - strength at the cost of defense.
He let out the breath through his mouth.
It felt far more familiar to have his energy back in the right places. It still felt like he would get killed at any second, but now he felt like he could do something about it - this was the same influx that had let him hurt World-Breaker Yang. He could use it to even the odds here. Like by, say, removing their numbers advantage, and whittling them down from the strongest of them down to the bottom of their ladder.
And he'd always had a small itch for a rematch with Pyrrha, without the kid gloves.
Aldric's eyes snapped back open, and pushed. A telekinetic wave blasted outwards - one just as strong as the outflux of Yang's overflowing rage. Everyone with the sole exception of Weiss' knight was sent flying, and with the slack in the ribbon, Aldric was able to free his arm, dig both arms into the ground and pull himself out from the knight's boot. His lightsaber flew back to his hand and in one smooth motion he activated it and swung it at a wide upwards angle, cleaving the knight in two before it could properly react. Then, just as fast, he whipped around and thrust out his free arm, its metal fingers splayed out wide - everyone who was flying through the air stopped on a dime, as though they'd slammed into an invisible wall, which Aldric promptly reoriented and used to pin them to the ground.
Pyrrha was the sole exception, and she recovered just as fast as Aldric had set the stage, and while everyone else was pinned to the ground, the Warrior, the Invincible Girl, she flipped to her feet and dug them into the ground, grinding herself to a halt and snapping into a defensive stance, kneeling behind her shield, her spear propped up on its side, ready for Aldric to advance.
"Ash..." Her voice shook from emotion, even as the grip on the haft of her spear tightened. "Please!"
Aldric remained silent, partially to keep up the menacing appearance and the question of whether or not he was in control of his actions, but also because the sight of everyone pinned down to the ground gave him an idea. As strong as he was, he couldn't keep them all down forever - and even if bringing his power back to full force would bridge the gap between him and Pyrrha, it didn't mean he could defeat her. Her skill would always outclass his, and it would take him far more time than he had to change that. The only way he could defeat her was if he went lethal, if he choked the living daylights out of her or broke her aura with his blade, but he wanted to avoid that at all costs.
Fortunately, the idea forming in the back of his mind would result in him not having to try and outfight her, and if it worked, he may even be able to eliminate more than one opponent at a time.
For now, he kept ahold of everyone, and, wary of who he was fighting, sheathed his sword. He cracked both of his knuckles, unfolded both of his shields, and charged. In an interesting turn of fate, as Aldric flew through the air, much like with Yang before her during their encounter on the Russian ship, Pyrrha was prepared for a fight with Goud Etiolate; and, much like Yang before her, this meant she was completely unprepared to fight Nebo Aldric.
He cleared the distance between them in the blink of an eye, back-handing her spear and slamming his cybernetic fist into the center of her shield. She crouched behind it, letting it do its thing and absorb the force of the attack - but that was what Aldric wanted. He used this, grabbing ahold of himself with his semblance and using it to wrench himself around Pyrrha like a puppet being jerked through the air. She realized what he was doing in the split second before Aldric's foot hit her in the back, and she reacted as fast as she could - stumbling forward, rolling into her momentum, and sprouting back up as though she'd planned the whole maneuver. She spun her spear around, it constricting and twisting into a gun as her shield shifted onto her back.
As Pyrrha took aim, Aldric thrust his hand out to his left - and grabbed ahold of Qrow - the next person down on his list. Just as Pyrrha pulled the trigger, Aldric ripped Qrow over to him, and the three bullets Pyrrha fired all hit Qrow, tearing chunks out of his aura; Aldric sensed Pyrrha gasp and ceasefire - giving Aldric all the opening he needed to throw the former bandit away again and charge Pyrrha. Her shield slid back onto her arm and she fall back one step, giving her the time and space she needed to block Aldric's attack; she then stabbed upwards at the side of his stomach.
Aldric wrapped his free arm around the sword, and then curled his fingers around the edge of his shield - wrenching both to the side, and freeing Pyrrha's core up for a devastating double-kick. He flipped off of her as she stumbled back, but she was already rushing towards him when he landed, so he hopped back a few steps, keeping out of her reach as he grabbed Jaune this time and brought him in to take her next attack. Jaune did his job perfectly - arriving right in front of Aldric as Pyrrha shoved her spear forward in another attempt to injure Aldric; Jaune gasped in pain as his aura flashed, and this time Pyrrha caught onto what Aldric was doing: Every time she came in for an attack, Aldric would grab someone else, someone she cared about, and would force her to hurt them, to tear chunks out of their aura and only make the fights ahead easier for Aldric.
This made her lose confidence, and she fell firmly on the defensive as she tried to come up with a plan, which Aldric had a firm idea of what it would be, and as a result he already settled a grip on Weiss as he charged towards the Invincible Girl. He threw two wide haymakers and a vicious jab, all of which Pyrrha avoided easily thanks to a combination of natural skill and her semblance, but Aldric was expecting this and baiting her to do what she did next: When he overextended on his third attack, Pyrrha batted his arm out of the way with her shield, causing him to spin around, his back open to her. She took her opportunity as soon as it prevented itself - banking on her being too close for him to grab someone.
She lost her bet, as Aldric had been hoping for exactly this - and as Pyrrha thrust her sword forward with both hands, Weiss was already halfway towards them. Aldric wasn't able to make Weiss take the whole attack, he still felt the tip of Pyrrha's sword dig into his back, but she still cut into Weiss' abdomen and still did damage.
"Pyrrhayouneedto - ah!" Weiss had apparently thought up a plan, but Aldric stole her chance to tell her by throwing her away and spinning around to face his opponent - smashing the back of his fist into the side of her face. She spun into it and paid him back in kind, broadsiding him with his old shield.
Having realized that any time she made any distance between the two resulted in her harming her allies, Pyrrha was forced to close the distance between her and Aldric - but this meant that she was far too close for Aldric for her semblance to be as effective as before. When Aldric blocked her next attack with her shield with the palm of his cybernetic hand, he threw a vicious uppercut towards her jaw; Pyrrha tried to deflect it with her semblance, but she had no room to move it out of the way - and with some pressure from Aldric's own semblance, his fist stayed right on the path it was supposed to and was brought right home to her jaw.
Pyrrha almost bent over backwards from the force of impact, Aldric thought he'd heard her neck crack, but he knew he saw her aura flash - a dangerous indicator for her, one which she didn't miss. Unfortunately, while time was running out for her, it was also running out for Aldric - sweat was streaming from his forehead, his chest was expanding and collapsing rapidly as he forced air through him as fast as he could, it was getting harder and harder to keep everyone immobilized.
So now it was time for his next trick - one he had to make count, because he could only use it once.
Any time now, guys... He grunted, as Pyrrha recovered and lunged forward as fast as she could to prevent Aldric from grabbing another human shield.
She jabbed Aldric in the stomach with her sword and spun around, slamming the flat of her shield into his chest. She kept up her momentum, spinning again and cutting down on his collarbone, before her fourth spin brought her shield down on the side of Aldric's head with a heavy sounding crack. Aldric made a show of stumbling back as he let everyone go, his hand shooting up to the quickly growing welt on his forehead.
"Huh?" He gasped, "wha -" But Pyrrha was way too far into it to back down, and she was already halfway into her next attack, a spear being shoved into Aldric's chest and sending him stumbling back.
The barrel of her weapon exploded, the recoil sending it back into Pyrrha's hand, she twisted it around into a proper grip and then threw it at Aldric as she rushed forward. The spear hit and bounced off of Aldric's shoulder, causing him to twist towards Pyrrha and leave his core wide open for her to follow up with a final, heavy smash from the edge of her shield. Aldric was sent stumbling back, coughing and sputtering.
"Oh..." Aldric groaned in pain. "Okay... I'm awake now!" He waved his hand, as though he were trying to fend off a fly, and sensed Pyrrha pause and do a double take, the eyes of the others - who were helping each other to their feet - snapped towards him as he let out the first words he'd spoken in the entire encounter. "I'm -" He tried to get to his feet but stumbled to the side drunkenly. "Oh... Shit." He fell to his hands and knees, face scrunched up like a person who'd been rudely awoken after a deep sleep.
Pyrrha hazarded an, "Ash?" Cautiously.
"Eh?" Aldric groaned, turning his head to face the Invincible Girl. "Didn't I..." He grabbed his head, "oh... Fuck." And then he examined the cybernetic appendage, "whose arm is this?" He traced it down to his shoulder, "is this mine?" He looked back at Pyrrha, confusedly, "Pyrrha?" Then around him, appearing for all the world as though he'd been sleeping a long time and was still trying to wake up, his eyes squinting, face wrinkled in the grimace of someone who hadn't yet adjusted to daylight, his voice hoarse. "Jaune?" Then to Weiss, "Weiss?" Then to Ren, "Oh - hey sexy. Fuck are you guys doing here?" He looked around again, "fuck am I?"
"Ash, is that you?" Pyrrha asked, slowly lowering her shield.
"Ugh..." Aldric groaned, "who the hell else would I be?" He noted with a sense of morbid humor that Qrow obviously didn't buy it - but also, obviously, couldn't be open about it, and he had to pretend to be concerned for the guy who'd kidnapped one niece and emotionally traumatized the other.
Pyrrha approached him, at first cautiously, but then the hope of the situation winning out and she broke into a run, falling to her knees as she reached him. "Ash, I'm so glad you're okay!" She brought him into a tight embrace as she simultaneously tried to lift him to his feet.
Despite what one would usually feel in a situation like this, all Aldric felt in his chest was ice - because Pyrrha was wide open, and this next attack would finish it.
"What do you remember last?" Pyrrha began, as she got Aldric to his feet and released her hug, but keeping ahold of Aldric, the two of them at arm's length.
Aldric grabbed one fist in another, ducked down low, and rammed his metal elbow into Pyrrha's stomach hard enough to leave her croaking as she doubled over, her aura shattering to pieces.
"Damn it!" Qrow shouted.
"No!" Jaune yelled.
When Pyhrra fell to her to her knees, eyes glazed over from equal parts pain and shock, she was barely able to look back up to Aldric, whose expression was stuck in the middle of pain and resignation.
"We'll..." She croaked, "save you. I pr-" Aldric knocked her out with a swift, heavy kick to the stomach, sending her sliding across the room.
Aldric raised his eyes to the other assembled Huntsmen and Huntresses, looks of fear, of anguish, of anger, painted all of their faces. He pushed his Radar out, and -
There we go. He let out a long sigh, that was it - everything was done, now. Was running out of tricks. And every second he kept fighting them was a second closer to them figuring out how to breach his defenses, and since the job was only half done, that wasn't something he could afford.
Jaune gripped his sword tightly, "we -" He gulped, "we almost had him just a minute ago! We just have to gang up on him again!"
Aldric raised left hand, while his lightsaber returned to the right.
"We can do this!" Jaune urged, as the others, spurred on by him, readied themselves for combat.
Aldric locked eyes with Qrow, and dropped his hand. Qrow let out a silent curse as the doors began to creek and groan, swinging open by the force of Aldric's will, and as the light from the outside spilled in, alongside the sight of smoke and fires in the distance, five figures were revealed. Two old men without a scratch on them, one aristocrat who wore formal wear into battle, one bear of a man who had dust crystals clenched in his hands, and a psychopath hopping up and down on both feet, practically foaming at the mouth, waiting for his chance to rip and tear.
"You finish things here." Aldric said over his shoulder. "I need to see what's taking her so long." He turned forward again, and with a pulse of his semblance he cleared the entire great hall in just a few seconds - zooming straight through the middle of the assembled warriors as though they weren't there in the first place.
Aldric wasn't sure if anyone saw him stumble a bit, but he didn't quite care enough, instead crushing the rubble of the elevator and making a path back down below ground for him.
The last thing he heard was Qrow giving out orders for a retreat - they'd lost their chance and had to regroup elsewhere. The last thing he saw before they left the range of his radar was the Legion advancing on the League, while the League made a desperate stand to buy themselves the time they would need to retrieve their injured, Ruby's scythe, and retreat.
He plummeted through the concrete elevator shaft for several seconds before using his semblance to expedite the process - turning what would have been a remarkably long fall into one that took less than a minute. With a pulse of his powers he slowed down enough that he didn't flatten himself on the ground, and when he straightened up, he heard the sounds of heavy combat as two demi-goddesses tried their damnedest to kill each other.
With his inactive blade clenched in his hand, Aldric entered Haven's vault. The place looked like a hurricane had gone through - dust filled the air, the walls looked scarred, everything smelled like fire and smoke. Just before the great door that separated them from the relic, he saw Cinder and the Spring Maiden engaged in deadly combat. The lightsaber that Aldric had donated so long ago was clenched in both of Cinder's hands and she was swinging it like a conductor would flick a baton - a deadly elegance to her motions. Each swing burned a hunk out of one of Raven's blades, every few swings destroyed one entirely, but few connected with the woman herself - who used any combination of natural skill, her powers, or her avian form to dodge, dive, and twist out of the way whenever Cinder came close. Cinder was bruised, but didn't look nearly as haggard and exhausted as Raven did - the Bandit Chief appearing as though she were ready to fall out at any moment from any combination of blood loss, fatigue, or an inability to keep up with Cinder. The Spring Maiden had appeared to abandon entirely a big, bombastic battle after having been literally overpowered by the tri-Maiden in front of her, and was instead focusing everything on outmaneuvering her and executing hit-and-runs.
But she was running out of time even before Aldric had arrived; with every passing second the vault shook, more and more of the walkway leading to the end fell apart. Raven and Cinder were standing on the small island of material left at its very edge, and Raven was running out of room to maneuver - soon she would either have to run away entirely, or dedicate to a last stand.
But, Raven being Raven, she had an out - and it came in the form of Vernal, who, from the looks of her, had been thrown from one end of the vault to the other and had crumpled up against the entrance. She had her weapon in her hand and she was trying to steady it, trying to get a shot on Cinder, trying to do anything she could to help her chief. Aldric walked up behind Vernal and patted her on the shoulder, causing the woman to jump, twist around, and shoot Aldric. The projectile bounced harmlessly off of Aldric's chest, and after he gave her a moment to recognize him, he nodded to the elevator shaft.
"There's some debris back there. Hide there for three hours and then climb out."
Vernal, though her expression was livid, still appeared to be on the edge of tears, as she raised her gun again. "Is..." She groaned, pressing her free hand to her red stomach. "Is the deal still on?!" She demanded through gritted teeth.
"Yang Xiao Long is still alive. As is Qrow, if you care. I left them up top and they knew they had to get out or die. Looked like they were choosing the first option." Aldric said, wiping some of the blood from his chin, unphased by the gun.
But Vernal angrily flicked it at him, her arm shaking as she clenched it even tighter. "Is it still on?!"
Aldric lowered the back of his hand from his chin, finding the blood still fresh and still dark, and after sparing a moment to wonder if Yang hadn't left her mark like Blake had, he glared at Vernal from underneath his eyebrows. "You put that gun down or it won't be." Aldric responded, deciding now may be the best time to go on the attack instead of the defense.
Vernal let the gun drop, breaking eye contact with Aldric and clenching her eyes shut as she tried to fight off a wave of sorrow, before letting out a hollow, shaky sigh, and walking. "She made it convincing..." She knocked her shoulder into Aldric's, and the Master let her. "You bastard."
Aldric's eyebrows twitched, but he didn't have time to consider those words, considering what Vernal gave him next.
"Oh... And you told me to tell you what I thought." She said, at the threshold of the elevator shaft. "I think you're wrong. Whatever you thought you saw in her, it's not there anymore, if it ever was in the first place." She said, "there is no redeeming her..." She started walking again, shouting over the sounds of combat, "so kill her when you have the chance!"
A frowning Master turned from Vernal, to the battle before him. Cinder was halfway through recovering from an attack to her back from Raven, whose blade was streaming fire.
That was far too much to unpack in a few minutes, and it was painting the shape of a picture Aldric wasn't sure he liked. Questions... The Master forced himself to think, as he crossed his arms and watched the fight for a moment longer. For... He gritted his teeth, watching Cinder throw herself at Raven, their blades locking together, a savage grin on Cinder's face, and a determined frown on Raven's as she thrust one of her hands into Cinder's gut and electrocuted the tri-Maiden. Later! He thought, as Cinder was shot back, landing just before the edge of their little island of rubble.
Raven, coughing, fell to the side a step and was forced to lean on her katana like it was a crutch, casting her gaze around the crumbling vault -
And locking her fiery eyes onto Aldric's mechanical orbs.
Aldric dropped his arms and flicked his blade, it activating with a loud Zhoom! and bathing him in a red light. Raven's shoulders and head slumped, she fell to her knees as she let the weight of everything crash onto her; Cinder noticed Aldric's presence and her savage grin turned to one of victory.
Aldric's frown deepened, is she really just going to let this happen? He asked himself, keeping his eyes locked onto Raven as Cinder sauntered over to the fallen Maiden, her blade hissing to an inactive state and sliding onto her back, as the Grimm Bug crawled out of her hand. Jesus, what did Venom promise her? He wondered, as Raven's screamed filled the vault. It didn't take long at all, as he witnessed the final Maiden's power flow through the tendrils to rejoin the other four souls to empower the fifth, and soon after, Cinder finished stealing the energy of the last Maiden, the tendrils' glow died down, and she removed her hand.
She decapitated Raven as Aldric leapt over.
"Alright -" Aldric raised his hand, "so I get it, you won - you got literally everything you wanted - but this place is shaking too much for an underground structure... So can we...?" He trailed off, nodding to the great magic door next to them.
Cinder, a practically orgasmic look on her face, nodded and placed her hand on the door. It responded just as one would expect for the multi-Maiden, and in a brilliant flash of light, the previously solid surface of the portal crumbled away in bright blue embers, revealing a great desert past it. Floating on a platform out in the middle of said desert, was it - the Relic of Knowledge. Aldric and Cinder looked down as a stone pathway lifted up to show them the way, and Aldric gave Cinder a small push on the back.
"This one's you." Aldric said.
Cinder needed no more prodding. She boldly walked out of the dark cave and into the bright desert, stepping onto the floating stone pathway, out to the platform that housed the Relic, and took it reverently.
Where Cinder's was a bright expression of jubilation, of victory, Aldric's was the opposite. His was a dark frown, a grimace that showed anxiety and defeat. To Cinder, every step they would take from here on was one step closer to an inevitable victory, but to Aldric, this was the single clap that would start the avalanche. The hardest part was over - the rest was, functionally, cleanup.
They had two Relics, and now there were only two more.
And after that:
Salem herself.
And all Aldric could think was that he didn't feel like he was accomplishing anything - but rather the opposite. He was actively assisting in his own failure, in his own defeat, and there was nothing he could do about it.