Apologies for the delay; I had some personal issues, but they have been resolved. Regarding the story, I'm creating a new tier on (P)(A)(T) that will have 7 chapters ahead, so for those who want to support or simply check it out, feel free to do so... Or not, either way, I appreciate you reading my stories!
Well, as always, good night to everyone and happy reading!
[...]---[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
The teleportation was swift, as always. I thought I was going to enter a battlefield or something, but no... It was calm.
I materialized next to what seemed to have been an improvised camp inside a ruined building. I could see marks on the ground resembling sleeping bags, and in the midst of the marks, the remnants of a campfire.
The stream hadn't teleported me directly to Ruby and the others...
"Magnificent..." I wasted no time running in the direction the stream indicated the girls had gone.
At least I had a general location of them...
It took me a few seconds to reach what seemed to be a hole, descending into an underground city beneath the destroyed city I was in.
What was this place? A ruined city beneath a ruined city? How the hell did this happen?
The answer to that question growled at me and was promptly destroyed by a swing of my halberd.
A Grimm, a Beowulf to be more specific. Ruby had given me a general description of some of them, and the one turning to dust in front of me matched one of them.
A bipedal wolf, a poorly executed project of a werewolf with a white mask and red eyes.
I instantly realized these things weren't alive; they were too similar to hallucinations to be. The way they left an imprint in the environment was similar, even the way I saw them when I infused nightmare energy into my eyes was almost identical.
Grimm, like hallucinations, were creatures created from negative feelings, malice, and sins incarnated into a physical form.
Hallucinations were like insects, creeping, lying in wait until the time to attack.
Grimm were more aggressive and seemed like bastardized versions of normal animals, as if the "place" they came from, if there is such a place, tried to mimic nature and failed.
The other Grimm around hesitated to attack me after the first strike I delivered, killing one of them. They growled in my direction, not moving away, but also not getting closer.
"No time for this..." As much as I wanted to study these things a bit, see how they took form to see if it would help with one of my ideas, it wasn't the time for it.
With a thought, the Bone Helm appeared on my head.
I still didn't have much practice using nightmare energy or the hands of the Bone Helm, but I didn't need to be subtle in this situation...
The moment the Bone Helm appeared, I took a deep breath and kicked the ground, the sonic barrier shattering behind me. All the Grimm around were pushed away; those not torn apart by invisible hands.
... Good old brute force would do.
As I ran, I vaguely noticed that each time a Grimm died to one of the hands, part of the "malice" that made up the creature's body was absorbed by them.
Despite my nightmare energy rapidly diminishing with each death, it regenerated in equal measures every time a Grimm died and was "devoured."
Grimm might not be made of nightmare energy, but malice was malice, sins were sins, and the Bone Helm fed on that, growing stronger with each death, gaining energy with each body...
I slowed momentarily when I encountered train tracks, then turned, running along the line. The "sensation" the stream transmitted to me was in that direction, inside the tunnel.
I didn't waste time killing the Grimm with Houtengeki; I tore apart those in front of me with the hands from the Bone Helm, and the rest I simply ignored as I ran into the tunnel.
I ignored the holes in the ceiling raining creatures and pulled all the debris under those holes, be it rocks, destroyed rails, or pieces of what I thought were exploded train cars, into the Voidbag.
Something inside me pulsed; I ignored it, it didn't matter, not now, just like the Grimm in front of me didn't matter... Not when I didn't know how much time I had.
I wasn't a hero, and Ruby and the girls weren't helpless maidens; they were literally Huntresses, students from a school that trained warriors, they knew how to defend themselves, fight...
But I wouldn't be me if I didn't give it my all when a friend of mine was in danger.
Whether it was the two idiots who were my friends on Earth, Dylan in Terraria, or Ruby, my first viewer, on the stream...
If any of my friends needed my help, I would help... So I ran...
I ran... Leaving a trail of corpses behind me...
Sins were sins, right?... So be it, I'll take them all then... Just get out of my way!
...The black smoke emanating from them, absorbed by the Bone Helm...
[...]
POV: Ruby Rose.
The seconds after the impact were chaotic... Well, even more chaotic than this day had been.
Despite the barrier Weiss had created around us using Ice Dust, along with something the girl with ice cream-colored hair, Neo, if I'm not mistaken Torchwick had called her that before, had done with her Semblance, the impact hurt.
I was sure at least half of my aura had disappeared with the impact and explosion...
"Is everyone okay?!" I shouted amidst the smoke and the remnants of Weiss's improvised barrier.
Debris too, I noticed as I looked at the destroyed surroundings, we were surrounded by wreckage, stone... Was this a street?!...
Metal as well, probably from the train, and trees... Damn... My head hurt... Where were we?...
"We are... I think..." Yang grunted. "Damn! That hurt more than Uncle Qrow's punches..."
"Where are we?" Weiss asked. Even amidst the smoke, with impaired vision, I noticed her voice was nearby. At least closer than Yang's.
I gripped Crescent Rose, which I hadn't let go of even with the impact, and swung it upward with all my strength, being careful not to hit anyone and dispersing much of the smoke and dust from the wreckage around us.
When visibility improved, we found out where we were.
"Damn..." Blake coughed before continuing. "We're really inside Vale..."
My eyes widened with the confirmation, and I quickly turned my head, looking around.
We were in a square, or at least what was left of it, as a few meters beside us was a huge hole with the remains of a destroyed train.
Around the fallen trees, further away, dozens of people watched the scene with varying degrees of fear... Fear that increased when the ground beneath our feet started shaking.
"Down below us!" I yelled, pulling Weiss, who was beside me, along with me, away.
I sighed in relief when I landed and saw that Yang and Blake had managed to get out before the ground cracked, collapsing even more, creating a larger hole, and the enormous King Taijitu that had been chasing us emerged from there.
Along with the King Taijitu, dozens of Grimm flew out of the hole, and more and more emerged every second.
Damn... This... We wouldn't be able to handle all of this alone... Even if I used my eyes, I could only take out a few of them, not all, and then I would be out of commission, too exhausted to move...
Even with Doctor Oobleck, whom I could see in the distance, protecting some civilians and with the help of Torchwick and his partner, who were fighting near a building, we didn't have the means to kill so many Grimm...
"We need reinforcements." I murmured, pulling out my Scroll, but I was stopped by Weiss.
"I've already done that, sent a message to Pyrrha, she and her team are in the city for some reason, they should arrive soon!" I sighed in relief again... Okay, with reinforcements coming, we just needed to buy time...
But it shouldn't even be six in the morning yet, what was Team JNPR doing awake and in Vale? Especially on a weekend?...
"Aura?" I asked when Yang and Blake joined us.
"Still have plenty." Yang's answer.
"Enough." Blake's.
"I'll survive." Weiss's.
Well... I was expecting some percentages, not these vague answers, but I suppose in this situation, it'll do.
Before the Grimm started running loose in the city, I began barking orders.
"Yang, Blake!" I pointed to the nearest street, which we had partially destroyed with our "entrance." "Protect that area, focus on safeguarding the civilians, keep the Grimm within the park!" Killing Grimm here was secondary; protecting civilians was the real duty of a Huntress.
"Weiss!" I shouted again. "Provide support, create barriers, and focus on slowing down the Grimm." The longer we kept them within a single area, the fewer casualties we would have...
Not zero... A small voice whispered in my head before I pushed it away. It wasn't the time for those thoughts.
"I'll focus on the Grimm in the air and the ones farther away!" I shouted again. "Anything, shout; I'll get to you in an instant." My mobility wasn't perfect, I could barely make turns when using my Semblance, and the ones I could make were slow since I needed to slow down.
But still, I was the fastest here, and the one with the greatest range to be able to kill the flying Grimm and the ones that had run far away.
"Go!" I shouted one last time, my partners dispersing, following my orders without complaining...
Even in this horrible situation we found ourselves in, I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my face with their actions, mine too...
Even under pressure, we were managing to act, not blindly, but like the training Huntresses we were... like the professional Huntresses we would become.
I was lucky to have the team I had, wasn't I?... They all trusted me as their leader, even though I was the youngest, right?...
"What story will we have to tell on tomorrow's stream..." I smiled, accelerating and cutting through the Grimm around me.
... Then I would have to make this trust count!
[...]
POV: Jaune Arc.
"Damn... Nora! Behind you!" I shouted to my teammate.
I didn't have time to see what happened after my shout, as I was forced to defend myself, raising the sheath of Crocea Mors in its shield form to avoid getting the claws of a Beowulf in my face.
Damn, what the heck was happening?! It wasn't even six in the morning yet! Why was I fighting for my life against Grimms! Especially inside Vale?!
I pushed the Beowulf, hitting its white-masked face with my shield. At the same time, I heard a crackling sound of bone breaking as the mask cracked.
Without hesitation, I struck with my right hand, holding Crocea Mors, towards the Grimm's neck, decapitating it.
I had improved... Even though it still took me so long to kill just one Beowulf.
I turned, raising my shield towards the footsteps coming from behind me, another Grimm, a Boarbatusk. This was going to hurt...
I prepared for the impact I knew was coming, and to my surprise, it didn't come, thanks to my partner, who impaled the Grimm from the side with Miló in its spear form.
"Thanks for the save, Pyr." I thanked my partner, sighing when I realized that all the Grimms around us were dead.
A moment to rest... At least for now.
"No need to thank me, that's what partners do." Pyrrha smiled before turning around. "We don't have time to rest; Weiss sent me a message a few seconds ago; Team RWBY needs help in the north park."
"Help?" I asked, walking behind her, Nora and Ren quickly following us. "Do they know what caused this?"
"Weiss didn't have time to explain; she just wrote that they are in trouble, and it involves their mission." Had the mission gone wrong somehow? How can something go so wrong as to cause a whole invasion of Grimms?!
Didn't they go to Mountain Glenn? Wasn't that literally dozens of kilometers from here? How the hell can a mission so far away cause an invasion?!
"Wait, we have to warn the profes-" I spoke momentarily before being interrupted.
"I already did that." My partner spoke without stopping. "Contacted Professor Goodwitch; reinforcements will arrive in five minutes." Five minutes?! Are they using a modified Bullhead or something?
A few seconds later, still running, I asked something I was curious about.
"Pyr, a question, did you tell Weiss why we're in the city?"
"No, why?" Pyrrha's voice was confused, unlike mine, which was relieved.
"Nothing, just curious." It was a lie, but could I admit that I was embarrassed about waking up early to go buy supplies for training?
Team RWBY was by far the best team in our year. They trained more, had better coordination, and a better leader.
Even though Pyrrha could take them head-on, she couldn't win.
At least not anymore. In the group fights between our teams, our spares, I was always the first to be knocked out of the fight, followed by Nora and then Ren. Pyrrha was always the last one standing and ended up "winning" the battle for our team.
But in our recent spars, that hadn't been happening. Team RWBY had gotten stronger, faster, more coordinated. The most my partner could do lately was force a draw, and even that seemed to be starting to change.
Pyrrha said that in a short time, Team RWBY would be able to beat her, even if she gave it her all. That woke me up more than I already was. It was like a slap in the face.
Pyrrha was by far the best fighter in our year, maybe even in the following years. I knew she was strong, skilled, we all knew, but due to my incompetence, because I was a lousy leader, she was being dragged down.
Everyone was. Nora and Ren were better than me, had excellent coordination, but that alone wasn't enough. So I started copying Team RWBY.
If they trained, I copied the schedule, tried to create a training plan for Team JNPR. If they could improve, my team could too.
That's why we were awake so early on a weekend, to get supplies to train in the Emerald Forest while they were out on a mission.
We had already stayed there for a few days, but we ended up needing to leave to replenish our supplies.
Team RWBY might have a better leader, and that probably wouldn't change, I admit, but I wouldn't let my team fall behind...
It took just over two minutes to reach the park where Pyrrha said Team RWBY was, and just over a second for me to realize the crap that was happening.
"Oh shit, how many Grimms!" My body involuntarily shouted; I swear!
"Oh shit, how many Grimms!" Nora shouted next, with a tone of voice totally different from mine, a cheerful tone, and jumped towards the nearest Grimm, turning it into a pancake with Magnhild.
I had to take a moment to breathe, to regain my thoughts back to normal after witnessing a "Nora" action coming from Nora before she even started speaking.
"Let's help Team RWBY!" I shouted, pointing towards the center of the park where I could see Ruby and Weiss fighting. Yang and Blake were further away on the other edge. "With me, JNRP formation, diamond!"
We had trained some formations, and to make it simple to convey them in the midst of combat, we used our team name, where each letter represented the order of the formation, and the word following it described the formation's shape.
The JNRP diamond formation was a diamond-shaped arrangement, with me at the rear, Nora and Ren on the sides, and Pyrrha at the front.
This was the best formation we had to plow through the Grimm and reach a place quickly.
Pyrrha served as the tip of the diamond, impaling and slashing Grimm swiftly, while Nora and Ren provided support to Pyrrha, quickly dispatching any Grimm on the sides.
I was the most "useless" yet had the most important job, protecting the other three.
I didn't need to effectively kill the Grimm, but rather block any Grimm that approached from the rear in the blind spot of any of them.
I might not be the best in combat, but I had a significant amount of aura and could withstand several hits to delay the Grimm until my teammates assisted me.
My teammates quickly organized the formation, and we started running towards the center of the park, discovering where the Grimm were coming from.
It was a huge hole, and... Damn it! Was that a train?!
How the hell did a train end up under the Vale!? Why did Team RWBY always get into these messes? Were they cursed or something? Should I look for some talismans and an exorcist?
It took us a few seconds to reach the center. Pyrrha was a complete steamroller, with Nora and Ren assisting, the Grimm seemed to be made of paper, cut, torn, and crushed quickly.
The last courtesy of Nora, who seemed to be the happiest in this situation... Sometimes I felt sorry for Ren... Only sometimes, then I put myself in his shoes and sighed in relief.
"JRPN formation, cannon!" I shouted as we approached the center of the park and what I could only call the biggest King Taijitu I had ever seen in my life.
I hadn't seen many, but this one was enormous!
After my shout, I crouched, holding my shield with both arms in front of my body. Ren immediately ran behind me, supporting my back for the "blow" I was about to take.
Nora stopped hammering the Grimm she was pummeling and ran towards me, jumping with both feet onto my shield.
"Oof!" I felt the air leave my lungs, but I stood firm.
When Nora lost all the momentum from the "double-foot kick" she had given me, I pushed my shield with all my strength, Pyrrha using her semblance to give our cannonball more "momentum."
Nora practically flew, shouting in joy when she hit Magnhild on the head of the King Taijitu, along with the blow, detonating a grenade that threw the Grimm to the ground.
Everyone had a kind of "gun" weapon... I still didn't understand the fanaticism, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't want one...
The King Taijitu toppled, hitting its head on the ground, but aside from a slight stagger, it seemed fine, its mask didn't even appear cracked.
"This thing is going to take a while to die..." Ren murmured, his voice as calm as always.
Sometimes I feel like even without his semblance, the guy would still make a good monk...
"Ruby!" I shouted, approaching the leader of Team RWBY. "What the hell happened?" I didn't stop moving; I continued attacking the Grimm around, as did my team, but I couldn't help asking.
"A lot, no time to explain!" The girl with the scythe shouted back, appearing meters away from where she was before, shooting into the sky with Crescent Rose in rifle form.
I couldn't even see her moving...
"If you see a weird guy with a maniacal look and a scorpion tail, run! He's pure evil!" Ruby's voice echoed in the wind, her appearing and reappearing rapidly as Grimm died, cut by the red blade of the scythe.
Okay, kill the Grimm now, ask later what the hell happened and who the guy with the scorpion tail was...
My thoughts were forcefully interrupted, my entire body freezing in terror when I felt what I can only describe as the most horrifying thing I've ever felt in my entire life.
The Grimm made the whole environment feel bad; it was a horrible sensation, but this... Thing... was worse.
It was like feeling dozens, hundreds of Grimm at the same time, but all concentrated in a single point, as if it were a single being...
It was pure malice, so many negative feelings concentrated in a single point...
And the worst part?...
This thing was rapidly running towards us, towards the Vale, coming from the hole just meters away from us...
We need to get out of here... NOW!
I didn't know what this thing was, whether it was an ancient Grimm, an evil spirit, or a demon, but we weren't prepared to fight it, neither my team nor Team RWBY.
The sense of impending destruction that this thing exuded was so great that I felt like my heart could stop at any second...
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?!" I heard Nora scream, her cheerful demeanor flying away, her happy face changing to something almost desperate, as if reliving a horrible memory.
Ren was the same, it was the first time I saw the guy without his usual blank expression...
Even Pyrrha seemed scared, frozen next to a Grimm... Frozen?!
I forced my body to move, trying to get to her before the Grimm attacked her, but I stopped midway, not because my legs were shaking... they were, but that wasn't the reason, but because the Grimm in front of Pyrrha was shaking too.
In fact, all the Grimms around were trembling, as paralyzed as we were, like...
"The Grimms... They're scared?..." I heard Weiss' voice... All the surroundings had fallen silent. "This is like..." Weiss widened her eyes, looking surprised and... happy?
What the hell? And why did she seem fine?
Looking closer, the entire Team RWBY seemed to be little or not affected at all by the aura of this thing.
"Don't tell me?" This time it was Ruby who spoke, almost a whisper, I could only hear it because of the proximity since she had appeared by my side and was looking at the hole from which this thing seemed to be coming... And coming fast!
Damn, the aura seemed to be kilometers away, and it was already close, almost under us; we need to get out qui...
For... I don't know how many times that day, my thoughts were forcibly interrupted, this time by something moving.
It wasn't a Grimm, but a human, a faunus, I realized later, seeing the scorpion tail behind his body.
Scorpion tail? Check... Maniac look? He had a maniacal look, check as well. This was the guy Ruby had talked about, right? The one who was "pure evil"?
Even without her warning, without knowing the guy, I would categorize him as "pure evil" too. If the word "psychopath" had taken form, I'm sure it would be this guy, and the way he looked at Ruby's back didn't give me a good feeling...
Move! I wanted to shout to Ruby next to me, but I realized that my voice would reach her too late...
I was the only one who could act here, both for being the only one who saw the guy and because I was the closest to Ruby. I'm sure she could quickly dodge if she were seeing, but this guy was exactly in her blind spot... In everyone's blind spot!
What the hell was this crazy guy? Some kind of hired assassin or something?...
Even before I realized, I had started moving, throwing my body into the path of the attack that was heading straight for Ruby's back.
I was so used to being the "shield" of my team that I didn't even realize I had moved, in fact, until I was in front of the blow, raising my arms and putting my shield in front of me?...
I didn't have my shield, actually, I didn't even have Crocea Mors in my hands. When did I drop both? Was it when I felt the aura of that thing?
The moment I realized I was without my shield, a sense of death fell over my body, a fear so raw and horrible that could almost be compared to the aura of that thing... Almost...
I was going to die, that was for sure, I knew it with all my being. My aura wouldn't protect me from this blow, if this guy's blades hit me, I would die...
It was as if the purple aura around them was death; I knew that. Without my shield, I wouldn't be able to defend myself, if that blow hit, I would die...
I would die... I was going to die... Move...
Move... That's all my body was screaming, yelling, for me to move, run, flee.
I knew that this guy's attack wasn't for me. The look on his face said that. If I stepped aside, he wouldn't change the trajectory of the blow but would continue until it went through Ruby.
I wasn't the target, Ruby was. I could move and live. I could live... All I had to do was take a step to the side...
"NO!" I growled, shouted, I don't know, but I didn't move.
I didn't move, even when I felt my teeth hurt from how much I was clenching my jaw. I didn't move when I felt my forehead vein bulge from the tension in my body
I didn't move when I saw the blades on the faunus' wrist inches from my chest.
I couldn't move. If I stepped aside, Ruby would die, so I didn't move.
I wanted to live, wanted to jump to the side, but between me and Ruby, she deserved more... I wasn't even supposed to be at Beacon; I had faked my entry. Ruby didn't, she got in two years earlier.
She would be a better Huntress than I would ever be a Huntsman... Remnant couldn't afford to lose someone like her...
And even without that, I still wouldn't move, not when the one who would die was the first friend I made at Beacon, the person who had become like an eighth sister to me.
She might not be blonde like all the others, but that didn't matter...
So, if someone had to die... Let it be me...
I barely noticed when the pure malice sensation from the aura of that thing had disappeared, as if I were no longer a target, something to be destroyed... Prey.
But an ally instead...
I widened my eyes when I noticed my body moving, being pulled back by what seemed to be a huge hand holding me by the waist.
I tried to fight, go back to where I was, so Ruby wouldn't be hit by the faunus' attack, but I stopped when I realized I wasn't the only one being grabbed.
Ruby was being pulled too, dragged from my side by a hand made of darkness, entirely black... That didn't exude any malice.
In fact, all of us were being pulled by one of those hands, all eight of us, being held and pulled away from the Grimms and the scorpion faunus... Were these things taking us away from danger?...
Was this someone's Semblance?!.
I had my question answered when something jumped out of the hole where the Grimms were coming from... They had stopped coming out...
Did the train just disappear?... Where the hell were all the wreckage that was there?!.
I initially thought it was another Grimm, but I quickly realized it wasn't, it was a person, human or faunus I couldn't tell, but it was a man.
The first thing I noticed about him was the mask... Or at least I thought it was a mask, on his head.
It was a mask made of bones, similar to the ones Grimms and the White Fang had, but his wasn't white, but gray, and it had antlers... It was a deer skull.
He wore a gray armor, with dozens of symbols on it, and what looked like an axe on his back, which I didn't pay much attention to, more focused on the mask on his face, the eyes... Or the lack of them...
It must be some kind of illusion effect, something from the deer mask, some kind of technology, probably, but the man didn't have eyes, but what seemed to be an empty white light, emotionless.
It was as if something had tried to copy human eyes and failed, ending up with two illuminated and empty holes...
"I hope I'm not too late for the party..."
... Unlike his voice, which, even serious, had a touch of amusement.
Who the hell was this guy?!.
[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
"H... Ho... How the hell are you here?!" Weiss was the one who shouted, ignoring my question, or at least who I thought was Weiss, the colors matched the name, white.
Were they all wearing clothes in the colors of their names? Was this some kind of cultural norm or something?.
"A magician never reveals his tricks." I raised my finger to the front of the Bone Helm as if it were my mouth and made the sound of "Shhh."
My attempt to lighten the mood must have worked since everyone seemed less tense with my presence, and more relaxed.
Still on alert, but maybe it was because of the Grimms around and the scorpion-tailed bastard behind us.
Why the hell was he staring at me as if I were a god I couldn't say, he seemed about to kneel and start worshipping me like some kind of deity or something.
That disgusted me, as much as it made me angrier, more than I already was.
Since I got the nightmare energy, I had become more "tuned in" to feelings, negative emotions, I could almost "see" them, and this was amplified when I used the Bone Helm.
The amount of malice and negative emotions this guy exuded was so great that I almost mistook him for a Grimm, which was literally a construct made only of that.
This guy is going to die, even if he has some important information, this guy is going to die after he spits it out.
There's no way I can let something like this live; in fact, I didn't even know how this thing was born or lived for the first two days without its mother hanging it in the crib.
Well, that was a question I didn't care to ever find out, and it didn't matter really.
Besides talking to Ruby and the others, I want to go see what the hell was happening in my spiritual landscape.
Well, I had said that this was a party, didn't I?…
… Let's put an end to it then….
[...]---[...]
Apologies for the delay; I ended up rewriting this chapter a few times, much like the previous one. The beginning of this arc turned out to be quite a challenge...
Well, Devas finally showed up. Things are going to pick up, with a lot of action in the next chapter, and maybe some friendly fire? Devas radiates so much energy that he could be considered a Grimm army, so some things might get confusing.
A quick explanation: Jaune, I like the guy, or rather, I like his potential and what he can become. I'll be working on him a bit alongside Roman, but don't worry, the focus is still on Team RWBY and Devas.
Oh, and I didn't "make a mistake" by writing that Jaune saw the hands of the Bone Helm; there's an explanation for that coming in the next chapters.
Well, I've written quite a bit here, so, as always, if you have any questions, just comment, and I'll respond with my best without giving away any spoilers!
That said, good night, everyone, and happy reading!
PS: Something changed within Devas, what could it be?