Roman was in a hurry. Both to go help Neo, who he got pretty close to. She made Neopolitan happy and that was good enough for him. And because Neopolitan was practically asking 'are we there yet?' through expression alone. They didn't take long to reach her. Neo stood out in the dark atmosphere. The oncoming Grimm were almost on top of her now.
Without prior warning, Neopolitan jumped off and landed on a Beowolf's head, driving her heel through the eye before severing its head with the scissors. She flicked her wrist and separated both blades. She dual wielded both red and blue scissor blades and looked at Neo's still body before running into a small group of the incoming Grimm and cutting them in half while expanding the blades to four meters in length.
Coming to a stop, Neopolitan looked up and sees Roman gracefully land on a Beringel's head before shooting it in the eye. He snapped his finger and his aura plucked out an aspect from it. Sighing, he turned to Neopolitan with a level gaze.
"You really had to dive in there? How is she?" He asked before uppercutting a Manticore with stolen Beringel strength, snapping its neck and killing it.
Neopolitan leapt over the dissolving bodies and checked on Neo with a concerned expression. Her eyes were closed but she wasn't sleeping. She seemed to be in a trance. Neopolitan heard more Grimm coming and grabbed Neo in her arms before running over to the Bullhead.
"Damn.. okay, hop back on. I'll clear the landing area then" Roman whistled, getting the Grimm's attention on him.
The group of Grimm ran and flew at him. First to meet his cane was a boarbatusk which he swatted into a deathstalker's face. Then he grabbed a street light, tore it from the concrete with a loud grunt of exertion and sent four beowolves, who were running after his partners flying. A griffon flew in behind him and tried to eat him but he caught its beak in one hand before pulling out a cigar. Putting it up to its sharp beak, he cut off the tip and lit it before slamming its head into the ground with a large 'CRACK' sound.
Looking around, the rest of the horde was at least twenty seconds away. Roman put the cigar in his mouth and joined them on the bullhead before gesturing the pilot to take off.
"Goddamn I love me.." He said and blew out a cloud of smoke with a cheshire grin.
"I love me too" Neo grunted and woke up, earning raised brows from both ex-criminals.
Neopolitan hugged her and sighed in relief while looking over her injuries and dried blood. Luckily, the bite had healed due to the Proxy cells. Seeing that she was okay, Neopolitan kissed her and nodded in agreement with her statement.
"Good to have you with us. Wouldn't be the same trio without you. My partner was the worried one of course" Roman shot a teasing look at them, which Neopolitan retorted with by sticking her tongue out at him.
"My bad, really. Sorry for worrying you, OG. And trio? Ooh can we call ourselves Team Three Star? The Three Amigos? The Unholy Trinity?" Neo said and hugged Neopolitan.
"Oh hell no! All of those sound weird. Anyways, what was that about? You were out like a light back there" Roman asked while puffing his cigar.
"Crazy shit, really. That big ass Grimm was a shard of my soul. Confronted some inner demons and stuff too.. I'll tell you about it later. How's the battle going?" Neo asked while hearing a system notification.
[>Icecreambae: I got the wifey here. We're on our way back to Beacon<]
Neopolitan wrote out in chat. The moment Neo checked chat, she saw a barrage of questions from Pyrrha, Blake, Shizuka and Raven asking where she was. Feeling a trickle of sweat running down her head she saw all of them typing.
[>Prettykitty: Finally! What happened!? Why did you leave Pyrrha!?<]
[>Spartanwaifu: Do you have any idea how worried I was!?<]
[>Yangsyummymummy: There you are. Good thing I don't have to fly around for you now. Too many Grimm in the streets now. I'm going back to Beacon with Qrow. Meet us there or I'm spanking you<]
[>Neo²: Sorry! Really sorry! I had some outer and inner demons to deal with but I'm okay now. Spanking huh? How lewd of you, Rae-Rae<]
[>BoobaphysicsFTW: Oh thank god! Wait.. I think Ozpin is doing something?<]
Neo, Roman and Neopolitan were almost blinded when a bright light was unleashed from Beacon. A strengthening magic surrounded the Huntsmen, ex-Fang and Students. Neo saw the source coming from Ozpin's tower and nodded dumbly.
"That old man doesn't fuck around, does he?" Roman commented, impressed.
"Not exactly the time TO fuck around. Mommy Salami is up there and throwing everything at Vale" Neo nodded and watched the whale get closer.
[>Neo²: By the way! Cinder, Emerald and Mercury switched to our sides. Tell everyone, okay?<]
[>Icecreambae: Huh? She should be helping Raven, right? I heard her say that while her stooges went to help the others<]
Neo looked at Neopolitan in confusion. She nodded to confirm and they both checked Raven's new message.
[>Yangsyummymummy: Nope. I managed to kill those three with Qrow. Used a flaming tornado<]
She seemed very proud of that fact.
[>Neo²: ...<]
[>Prettykitty: ...<]
[>Spartanwaifu: ...<]
[>Icecreambae: F<]
[>BoobaphysicsFTW: L.O.L<]
"I worry for Shizuka and Raven's mental states.." Neo muttered.
[>Prettykitty: Uh.. well.. Emerald and Mercury are here but Cinder isn't<]
[>Neo²: Did she just.. leave!?<]
That's when they heard the Whale Grim bellow. Patches of flame covered its body and Neo could see spells being flung out of its open mouth.
"Oh.." Neo's jaw slackened.
-Grimm Whale-
Cinder had seen Raven and Qrow's fight. She knew if Raven stopped holding back due to collateral damage, she could kill all three in one go. That's what she ended up doing. Using that tornado, she obliterated the last of Salem's human servants with ease. Cinder, seeing her assistance wasn't needed, proceeded to her real objective. One she knew Emerald and Mercury wouldn't agree with.
She flew off to the Whale Grimm, fire trailing behind her the whole way. Flaming wings had emerged from her back and she was using them to bypass the slower Grimm. Using her max speed, she flew past the swarm of flying Grimm and saw her in the mouth.
Salem was there, watching her passively. She was waiting for her without a care in the world. By now she shouldn't expect Cinder to betray her but Cinder still kept a distance of twenty meters and came to a hover.
"Why do you not come down, Cinder? Am I that intimidating?" Salem asked with a hint of mirth in her voice.
Cinder did not answer. She was observing Salem's body language, voice and reactions. All things that she had taught her. She couldn't find anything out of the ordinary from how she usually was.That was the scary part. She was a master deceiver. She played Humankind and Faunuskind for centuries. The Great War being her last and almost successful plan to eradicate any kind of defense they could muster against her.
"I see. So you've betrayed me. I knew your ambition would outgrow your loyalty to me one day but couldn't you have picked a better time to be a rebellious child?" Salem seemed exasperated and said in a chiding tone that didn't take Cinder seriously at all.
"You're wrong.." Cinder replied and clenched her fists.
"Oh?" Salem almost smiled.
"This isn't for ambition.. You have used me for years. You used my insecurities, pain and emotions to twist me into somebody I don't want to be! Not anymore.." Cinder yelled at the witch venomously.
"I'm guessing Ozpin got to you then? Oh Cinder.. He too, is manipulating you. But what should I expect from a blunt tool like you? Couldn't even kill the Maiden right and you only have half her powers. I suppose it suits you though. You're not even half the person you could have been" Salem commented with a malicious glare.
"Hm.. Hmhmhmhm! Hahahahaha!" Cinder laughed mockingly back at her, earning her a raised brow from the witch.
"And you find that funny? I think you really may have lost it this time" Salem harrumphed.
"No.. It's just funny you think Ozpin was the one who showed me what you've done" Cinder finished laughing and scornfully looked down on Salem.
"What..? Who then?" Salem asked, her interest piqued.
"The girl I mentioned? Neo. It was her. She had all the reasons to just kill me too. Take the other half of my power. Probably could have done it too, since she had help from the Champion of Mistral. So it really wouldn't make much sense to manipulate me if it was her, would it? No, I'm finally free of you now. My first act as a free woman..?" Cinder trailed off before smiling and unleashing scorching waves of flame at Salem, who countered with a powerful wave of magic.
The magic of the Fall Maiden and Salem's had clashed and though Cinder had the advantage for a few seconds, she was overwhelmed by Salem's encroaching darkness. She decided to detonate the magic and fly off to the side. Avoiding the bolts of magic missiles and stretching Grimm arms, Cinder dove down away from the mouth desperately. There was no way to overpower her in magic and getting close enough to hit her would be suicidal.
A new idea formed in her head now. Salem was in a living fortress. One that could feel pain. It can be brought down from the sky. Cinder summoned her glass bow and created greatarrows of flame before shooting multiple at the Whale's body as she flew. That got its and the flying Grimm around its attention.
The Whale was too slow to hit her but it would be an instant kill if it had. Cinder stayed away as she continously hit it with flames. The Nevermore, Griffons and Manticores were a constant threat though and had surrounded her. Before they could tear her to pieces, Cinder took out a fire dust crystal and used her maiden and enhanced semblance powers to create a flaming sun sphere around her that quickly expanded and turned numerous Grimm to dust.
Holding the Sun orb above her head, she flew up the whale at high speed and neared its head. Any unfortunate Grimm caught close enough to the orb was turned to dust. Adding more fire dust crystals, it grew in size and power until Cinder could barely contain it. She knew Salem would hardly be effected by this, even if it does end up hitting her. So she forced it down on the Whale's glowing red head before flying away from the impending explosion.
Explode it did. Flames covered the Grimm's body. It wailed and howled in pain as parts of it were evaporating. It began to fall towards Vale, fast.
-Monstra's mouth-
Salem was scowling. Cinder had actually managed to surprise her for not once but twice now. Betraying her due to a foreigner from another world and then, taking down the Monstra Grimm. Her largest Grimm to date. Her magic was equal to a Maiden's despite being only half of it but her semblance and enhanced magic of her own made her rather formidable in the use of fire.
Sending a mental command to the Monstra, she made it take an unstoppable dive towards Beacon and started to expel the Black River from within the Monstra, back down into the city. She would need the Grimm to hold off the mass of Huntsmen and Huntresses below while she took the last relic.
Taking all three with her, she waited for the crash landing that would signify the last battle she would fight. She knew that as long as she possessed all four relics, she would win.
She would kill the gods, Ozma, the planet and herself.