Author's Note: Bit of a warning, things get bloody.
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Legends and Fairy Tales come from mere myth and folklore. Never to be taken seriously and most of them are told to children for entertainment. But in a world where monsters roam the earth, Fairy Tales are among the populace without them even knowing. But there is one Fairy Tale, Myth, Legend and folk lore that frightens everyone who hears of it. A being whose sole purpose is to collect the souls of the dead, slaughters those needed. An Overseer of Death. But there is multiple versions of this legend.
The Overseer of Death, The Soul Collector, The Harbinger of Death, and God of Death. The many, MANY stories of this iconic mythological figure strike fear into the hearts of Humans and Faunus all over the world. But everyone knows that this "Death" isn't real... right? Well, HE IS. But not in the way you think. The Legend of Death is true, but not in the sense of a literal spirit. Because Death is actually a person.
A person who lost their Humanity a long time ago. Someone who did want to become a force for good, not evil. But life was cruel, so why not destroy it? If Life is so cruel to you, how about you be cruel towards Life.... AND DESTROY IT. That has been the goal of Alaric for a long time. To eradicate Life. But how could a Faunus turn into a Genocidal Maniac? Well for that, we need to go back in time to explain that.
A long Time ago in Menagerie, an odd Wolf Faunus had served in the White Fang since a young age. Growing up within the group during its peaceful days. it was clear that this Wolf Faunus was.... unhinged. He always talked about how Life was cruel, and he wanted to be cruel towards Life. An odd desire, but no one did anything until he became Infamous. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses went to take him down, but they all failed and were killed. ALL OF THEM.
No one could defeat this genocidal Faunus so much so that he became a local legend. They started calling him Death since no one knew his real name. That, and some didn't believe he existed. Just as some boogeyman made up to scare people. But he's real. He is very real. Some people who do believe he exists, compare him to the Grim Reaper. Just the comparison alone is enough to frighten even the most experienced Huntsmen.
But why did Alaric turn into a genocidal maniac? The answer to that question is widely unknown as the only ones who could possibly know are dead and or missing. But no one has seen or heard from Alaric in 10 Years. Most people believed that he'd been killed. Those who never even heard of him continued to think he didn't exist.
Somewhere in Atlas, A blizzard berates a village that is currently occupied by some Atlas Soldiers. The village had recently been evacuated due to the blizzard. But the Soldiers had gotten caught up in it. The buildings were now occupied by Atlas Military Personnel. Inside the villages tavern was lit fires and many other Soldiers. Inside was also a Team of Atlas Huntsmen.
"We just need to wait a few more days for this storm to pass." the Huntsmen leader said.
"That's if it clears up. The worst part is communication." Huntsmen 1 points out.
"now that you mention it, we've lost contact from even the scouts we sent a couple minutes ago not long after they left the village." Huntress said, showing concern.
"We'll look for them. They couldn't have gotten far." The Huntsmen Leader said, reassuring his teammate.
"Why do I feel a sense of dread?" Huntsmen 2 asks.
Everyone else looked at him and felt like something was off. Outside, the Soldiers noticed a fog come in alongside the blizzard. This confused them to the max. One of the Soldiers saw someone approaching and went to talk to his buddies, but the figure suddenly vanished, startling him. He looked around. The figure appeared behind him with a sickle at the ready. The figure slashed the weapon down at the Soldier.
Inside the tavern, the Huntsmen team and Soldiers within sat in silence. Feeling a sense of dread as one of the Huntsmen had pointed out. Soon after this, they heard gunfire coming from outside as well as screams from the soldiers outside. The Team and Soldiers rushed to the door and windows. The Team Leader looked out the window and saw two Soldiers blindly firing into the blizzard before a black blur zipped past and cut one of them down.
The other one freaked out and ran deeper into the Blizzard only for them to trip and be dragged off into the blizzard vanishing from sight. The others saw this too. Other Soldiers met the same fate outside. Shooting at an unseen threat only to be cut down by some black blur or dragged off into the blizzard never to be seen again. The Blizzard was obscuring their sight, so it was easy to watch the soldiers vanish. The mysterious Fog also was blocking sight.
"What the hell?" the Huntsmen leader mumbles.
The Huntress looked afraid.
"You guys see it?" Huntsmen 2 asks.
"no, I can't. What the hell is out there?" Huntsmen 1 asks.
"Some kind of Grimm?" Atlas Soldier 1 theorizes, his hidden fear surfacing.
"Maybe?" Atlas Soldier 2 responds.
As quickly as they heard the gunfire and screams of the Soldiers came, it vanished just like that. The eerie silence creeped them all out. They almost wanted to stay inside and hide from this thing. But the Team Leader collected himself and unsheathed his sword.
"Eddie, with me." The Huntsmen leader orders.
Huntsmen1—now known as Eddie—nods and grabbed his War Hammer.
"Jessica, Ryan. Remain inside with the others." The Huntsmen leader said.
"How are you sure you can fight whatever is out there?" Jessica asks.
"Not sure but were Huntsmen. This is our Job." The Huntsmen leader said, confidently. No ounce of fear.
"Be careful James." Ryan said.
James nods. He and Eddie approach the door. Once reaching it, they look at everyone else before quickly rushing outside, weapons ready. They walk far from the building but try to remain visible to the ones inside. They looked around with their backs together. Their eyes shift left and right and listen closely. Eddie spots the cloaked figure standing on top of a building, two Sickles in hand before he suddenly rushes off with the same black blur, they saw attacking the Soldiers.
"Have eyes on!" Eddie exclaims.
"After it!" James orders.
The two rushes after the entity. Everyone loses sight of them. As the duo rushed into the blizzard after the figure. They didn't notice that they accidentally split up. Eddie rushed into an alley way looking for the figure. As he walked into it, the figure watched him from above before dropping down, a black mist following him. When he lands, he stands up while pulling out his two sickles. His crimson red eyes locked onto its target.
Eddie heard the snow crunch and turned around. The last thing he saw was a sickle slashing at him as well as two crimson eyes.
James stopped as he noticed Eddie wasn't with him, so he turned and ran back to find him. He came across the alley way and saw a body. He rushed over and saw that it was Eddie. His War Hammer broken. Blood stained the snow. He got visibly angry. Too angry that he didn't see the cloaked man creeping up on him. The man brought a sickle up into the air and went to strike, but James's figure vanished. The man stopped his attack. He looked behind him and saw James rushing off.
An after-image semblance. The man lowly chuckles to himself in a sinister fashion as he turned and went after the man.
In the tavern, Jessica was looking outside waiting for her teammates to return. She and the others then saw James emerge from the blizzard running towards them.
"James!" Jessica exclaimed happily.
But that happiness would fade quickly as a Sickle flew out of the blizzard and pierced into the Huntsmen's back making him drop to the ground in pain and drop his sword. His Aura broke immediately. Jessica's heart dropped as did Ryan's. From the blizzard the cloaked figure was walking towards James, twirling his other sickle before reaching James. He reached down and grabbed his weapon before he pushed it in and hooked onto the boy's spine.
James's eyes widened as he grunted in pain. The cloaked man then swiftly ripped his sickle upward, ripping out the boy's spine effectively killing him. James's back was now open and spineless. The man dropped the spine and then his crimson eyes looked at the tavern.
Inside said tavern, Jessica was in tears seeing her teammate being killed in such a brutal fashion. Ryan clenched his fists. The Soldiers then gasped when they saw the man looking at the tavern. Ryan instantly forced the door shut tightly before he rushed over and pushed a table towards it. The others began to help him. Once done, for good measure, Ryan flicked on the latch lock.
With that done, they all backed up from the door. All they heard was silence... and then this whistle was heard. It was haunting. The whistling frightened the group. As it continued, they heard footsteps in front of the door. Ryan brought up his shotgun as Jessica brought up her daggers. As the whistling came to an end, they saw the tip of a sickle slowly creep through the crack and slash down. Cutting the latch lock in half. Now silence. They all stood in silence.
No sound was heard except for the blowing wind outside. The fire inside the building suddenly was extinguished and the building was plunged into darkness. The Soldiers were physically shaking in fear. They all inched to the door after an hour of silence. They slowly moved the table away and Ryan busted the door open and saw.... nothing. Nothing besides James's dead body.
This confused them. But then, their blood ran cold as they heard it, again. The Whistle. Everyone's skin turned pale as they turned around and saw the cloaked figure behind them all. The second they saw him, he stopped whistling. The man's sickles were covered in blood as was he. His blood red eyes seemingly glowed within the darkness.
Jessica began hyperventilating as she backed up towards the door. Ryan aimed his gun as the Soldiers were now shaking more in fear before Ryan shouted something.
"OPEN FIRE!!" Ryan loudly orders.
The Soldiers opened fire upon the figure who began blocking the bullets with his sickles with ease. Jessica then scums to her fear and darts out the door. As she ran, she heard gunfire and then the screams of the Soldiers and Ryan. Tears ran off her eyes down her cheeks as she ran out of the village entirely. Coming across dead bodies of the Soldiers who were killed first. Some of them mangled and torn to shreds. This frightened her more as she picked up the pace.
She ran for more than 30 Minutes before coming across a boulder. She ran around it and sat up against it. She was breathing heavily and rapidly in terror. She looked around the boulder, looking for the cloaked figure in case he was following her. She breathed a sigh of relief knowing she had lost him. She sat up against the rock. She began crying knowing she had lost her team and due to what she'd experienced.
But her sobs died down when she heard something. She looked back around the boulder and saw nothing. She thought it was nothing, until she noticed something ON the bolder. Her fears rapidly increased as she slowly and shakily looked up. Her heart dropped as her skin paled again. The Figure was standing on the rock. His hood down showing off his wolf ears and white hair. His crimson red eyes beaming into her soul. She yelped in terror, and she fell backwards and began crawling away.
The man walked off the boulder and just walked after her. She was hyperventilating while she made a desperate escape. She got up and tried to run but the man threw his sickle and sliced off the lower half of her right leg causing her to scream in pain. The sickle was called back to the man by some dark mist encircling the weapon. The mist faded away once in the man's grasp.
Jessica sobbed in pain as she tried crawling away. Blood gushing from her leg. The man reaches her and she is forced to stand up on her knees by the same dark energy that recalled the sickle to the man. With tears in her eyes, she looked at the crimson eyed Faunus.
"W-W-What the hell are you?" Jessica asks, tearfully and with a terrified tone.
The man said nothing and raised his sickle.
"Death." the man said.
With one slice of the blade. The woman is beheaded, and her body goes limp. The man then let go of her, the dark energy fading away. His Umbrakinesis turning off. The man holsters his weapons. The man grabbed his hood and pulled it over his head. As he walked into the blizzard, fading from view. His eerie whistle of death echoes throughout the land as he left the woman's body.
This isn't some nameless man. This is Alaric, The Harbinger of Death.