Cold steel and ballistics resistant plastic rubbed against his hot body.
"Ughhh." Jaune groaned, rubbing his forehead into the cool metal, feeling much better at the sensation. "Holy crap that hurts…"
It felt like hot molten rods of steel had been injected into his flesh, a crisscross of molten webbing that crawled over his chest, neck, and ribs. Even his spine felt like it was burning up, marrow melting inside the bone.
A smooth rubbery tongue swiped across his cheek, the only moisture of the action being his own sweat.
"I'm up, I'm up. Ugh. How long was I out?"
He'd been down for a bit over a half hour, possibly even having missed the end of Juniper's operational time, but that was… fine. Unfortunate but fine.
His fingers trembled, buried in that length of soft, crimson cloth, feeling it somehow despite the dragonscale and leather over his form. The wooden chains were rough, scratching, as if ignoring his Aura and armor, almost somehow scratching at bare skin in sensation.
"If I can't fight, I can find someone that can." Jaune muttered, standing up, 2B and 9S supporting him, stretching out as far as the wires that connected them to the current MDN would allow. "Another Hero."
His pulse quickened, feeling raw power course under his skin from the Artificial Magic Crest, the description assuring plenty of raw magical power, though he'd have little method of actually controlling the energy himself.
That was fine, he just needed enough magic to force a summon and to maintain a Servant, something he couldn't do on his own.
His hand reached out for the wooden chains, watching as the small leaves began to grow out, red flower buds beginning to form, quickly beginning to bloom and scatter the petals in every direction again and again, filling the small room with the scent of roses.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time."
The Magic Circuits spiritually burned into his chest glowed with gold-green light.
Orange Aura flared as Julius held Crocea Mors, quite conveniently more akin to a bastard sword in hilt, though longer in length, the blade extending in orange light as it cleaved into a climbing wall of Grimm.
"The ramps were better!" He spat, sweat dripping at his brow, "We'd cleave a lot more than small patches of Creeps wasting our Aura!"
"Less talking, more swinging, dear." His darling wife shouted, a borrowed assault rifle (part of the surplus of weaponry volunteered by the Crime Families, stolen, older Atlasean models) in her hands, aiming up and picking smaller aerial Grimm out of the air, her normal Huntress weapon, Sweep yet inert at her side, hopefully to await until the end of the siege.
The Hard-Light Projected Greatsword wasn't exactly great for super extended conflict of the likes they found themselves in. Not when there was still a surplus of ammunition going around, as non-Huntsmen were being supplied with a large supply of metal non-Dust ammo of varying sizes from their son.
He hadn't known even why his son knew how to craft such things when Dust was more convenient, but considering that there were volunteers that didn't even have Aura, that freed up the more versatile ammunition for him and his fellow Huntsmen.
A BOLT, one of those robot dogs that helped both around the house at the vineyard as well as back on Menagerie (good things, those dogs), ran along the length of the top of the wall, a backpack with extended hands distributing more ammunition from a sled that it pulled like a beast of burden.
"Back!"
His blade cleaved through a Creep that managed to get over the walls, throwing itself at the volunteer helping unload and distribute ammo.
The BOLTs could scout and act as a shield, but aside from the two special white and black ones that his son had named, the remaining yellow and blue robot dogs had no real combat capabilities.
"We'll keep you safe, don't worry lad!"
He smiled reassuringly, even though his body was faintly beginning to tire after almost an hour of extended combat, even if it wasn't high intensity it was quite a length of time. And due to the size of the Capital they didn't have anyone ready to relieve them, as any reserve forces were in the streets behind the walls, ready to make a desperate last stand.
The civilian volunteer (a young man with a bit of a beard, a noodle chef, he'd claimed to be) nodded, giving back a shaky thumbs up quickly before returning to his job, running to deliver boxes of ammo with all his might.
"He'll tire himself out at this rate." His darling wife reloaded with a worried tut. "We can't afford him collapsing on us."
"He's stronger than he looks." Julius frowned, leaning over the edge, growling as orange Aura crawled up the length of Crocea Mors once more, swiping it to the side to catch another smattering of Creeps. "Chefs work on their feet in the heat. It's good for endurance, if anything."
"I suppose that's why-"
The wall shuddered as despite the focused fire of his fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses rained down on a large Megoliath from above, it bashed at the South Gate they were protecting.
"Noelle!"
"I'm with you!"
Grabbing a corded steel wire, they both leapt from the walls of Mistral, wind whistling as it extended down to the fullness of its length.
Sweep ignited from his darling wife's hands.
"DOWN YOU SCUM!"
There was the warrior woman he'd fallen for.
The empty hilt rippled silver, a mixture of Aura and Hard-Light Dust (her preferred choice not long after the 'artificial' Dust's development) descending in a mighty cleave, striking deep into the shoulder of the ancient Grimm, the blade easily growing to the width of a meter, the length a rough near dozen.
Aside from raw force and cutting power, it still lacked mass, however, and even though it cut deep enough to seemingly disable a leg, it lacked the means to cut through further.
"Cleaning House!" He called out an old maneuver from the playbook of Team JALN (Jallion, gods he missed his old teammates, they'd been lost fighting the Grimm to the end) as he let his Aura flare hungrily, performing an explosive horizontal sweep.
His Semblance, Enhancement, took the concept of a 'Sword' extending it outwards, acting as a greater blade, cleaving cleanly in a full 180 degree Arc, the blade of Aura flickering as it struck the legs of the Megoliath.
Though it didn't cleave through perfectly, they left a deep crimson circular cut where the blade hand passed.
His wife let out a battle cry, raising Sweep into the air and striking down to the neck of the Megoliath, digging deep into the black Grimmflesh. His own Aura extended blade followed up, coming crashing down as Sweep retracted, hacking into the wound, deepening it.
It wasn't enough. The beast of darkness was beginning to turn in their direction, away from the large reinforced gates to the Capital.
But his Aura pulled back as Noelle Arc's weapon reignited, from behind her head, the lengthy full power of her weapon reigniting from Rocksteady, increasing the durability and force of the Dust projection formed by her Dust channeling weapon, and hacking into the neck for a third and final blow as Julius performed another wide sweep at the approaching hoards of smaller Grimm.
They were on the ground too long!
Their desperation must have been palpable, as they were attracting much more of the Grimm now, having been semi-retired for quite a few years now.
The Megoliath turned fully, eyes aglow with raw hatred.
One more blow!
His instincts screamed that it would just require another hit!
Jullius began gathering his Aura, suddenly feeling a bit exhausted. He still had some Aura to spare, but it had been a while since he'd made such large attacks in succession, not to mention the constant battle of attrition he'd been undergoing for the past… hour? It wouldn't surprise him if it had been extending past that.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH THEM!"
A young man's voice roared, vaguely edging on cracking, although clearly masculine and defined, like the voice of a leader, a hero.
A one armed Huntsman, crimson robes akin to that of a Mistralian nobleman, white armor gilded with gold in a style reminiscent of murals depicted in the ruins of Sanctum, leapt over them. A familiar blade was in his hands, glowing white hot with heavy twists of white-gold and scarlet Aura.
A strange glimmer and the sound of a ringing ping echoed as a spark of golden light sparked from the form of the one armed man flipping through the air.
The blade erupted with force, SHATTERING the Megoliath's mask, vaulting up and over with the impact as the ancient grimm was knocked backwards, descending like a falling star as his weapon cleaved through the neck of the powerful Grimm, beheading it to a cheer of the Huntsmen, Huntresses, and civilian volunteers from above.
The cheer was enough to stall the Grimm, though only for a mere minute or so.
His parents… they could see him.
Pyrrha's voice, still hush quiet, whispered in his ear.
Ta..k ..o ..em
Yeah, he should talk to them. Just a bit. Juniper was allowed a moment of selfishness, too, as long as he didn't expose too much.
"Are you alright?" He asked with a smile, feeling Pyrrha lend her Charisma.
"Thanks to you!" His father laughed, a tired grin on his face, sweat wetting down his cheeks. "You…"
His gaze descended to the Arc Regalia painted over his breastplate and the mirror copy of Crocea Mors in his hand.
"...I've heard my daughter's harebrained theory, but I didn't really conceive it to be real. Huh. It's… well it's damned nice to meet you, Juniper Arc."
That wasn't his name. This wasn't… wasn't his father. Not really, as much as it WAS his dad.
"Well, I've been… around. Doing my best to look after Jaune ever since he stumbled across my spirit." Juniper admitted, stepping forwards, tucking his weapon, sheathless, into his scarlet sash, extending out his right hand to shake. "But it's… it's truly a joy to be able to properly introduce myself."
He'd missed them. Never had the guts to call back after he'd fled in the night. Had intended on it after the Vytal Festival, resolved itself but… it never could have been.
Julius shifted his blade, the real Crocea Mors, into his other hand as he shook Juniper's.
"The honor is mine, truly. I… well I owe you a smack for Kuroyuri all those years back, but let's say we're even with this." He laughed, making Juniper feel sheepish remembering his selfish plea to Jaune to try to save Ren's family, despite the fact that it might have meant his friend would never have gone to Beacon.
"No, I still owe you that. One day, for sure." He promised, shaking his head.
A desperate promise to be able to speak to his father again, even if he was no longer his.
"Then I'll hold you to it!" Julius clapped Juniper on the back, his large hands so familiar he felt his heart seize, suddenly wanting to cry. "Over a drink too, eh? I'd love to share my vintage!"
His mother (not his, though still his mother) approached with a smile, her hand still holding onto her steel rope, though his father had already let go of his own and let it retract upwards in the fight earlier.
"Yes, I might not be as much of a chef like Jaune, but I'd like to offer a meal in gratitude."
They were just Mistralian manners, but it still made Juniper feel like crying, only Pyrrha's comforting presence bolstering him enough to keep a polite smile and poker face, lending her own experience back during her days as a Champion.
"...I'd love that." He replied quietly.
Julius and Noelle Arc wrapped their arms around each other, giving the steel rope a firm tug, being reeled up to the top of the Great Wall, while the Grimm on the ground began to regather their courage.
Nic.. pa..nts.
Despite the strange miracle he'd experienced of extended operation time as a Servant, he was down to the last few minutes, but still had plenty of mana left in his Saint Graph.
He leapt up the wall, the bottoms of his shoes propelling him upwards with pure friction, reaching the top of the mighty wall in three bounds, running along the top of the wall towards the Eastern side of the city, staring up as another yellow spear of light fired from the Headhunter's rifle, Dwarf.
A muted orange sniper blow of Aura followed soon after, but it was considerably weaker than an hour ago. Even if her body and weapons were holding, the Atlasean Nikke's Aura must have been giving out.
"Then let's go and hit it with everything I've got!"
His hand rose to tune in to the General's frequency.
"General! I need Specialist Elm Edearn to throw me at that Elder Grimm with all the force she can! I've only got another minute of descension left at most!"
"Copy that, Juniper. Godspeed."
In the distance he could see Elm flip her plasma launcher Laplace from its cannon configuration to the plasma powered maul, pulling back as if about to perform a golf swing, the backside of her weapon erupting with golden plasma fire, ready to swing with full force.
Now that was a bit much, but he could probably… probably live that long enough to fire off his Noble Phantasm.
"I'm here!"
"Get'em!"
His ankles felt like they were being crushed, his legs and knees rising to his waist, as he was launched at incredible force, his legs straightening as he felt them trail limply behind him.
FUCK FUCK FUCK THAT HURT!
"A FOE!" He roared, Eternal Arms Mastery, Charisma, and Aura Amp all firing up, his three active skills cycling through his Saint Graph at full force. "TIS A MOST MIGHTY! A MOST TERRIBLE FOE!"
"CLEAVE THE DARKNESS! A GOLDEN, YELLOW DEATH UPON YOUR HEAD! CROCEA!"
All of his amped remaining mana rose like a tidal wave to the heavens, a blade of white-gold and scarlet, beginning to shine a radiant yellow like the sun.
"MORS!"
His physical form disintegrated into motes of prana as his blade cleaved through the head of the Elder Grimm, splitting the flying eastern dragon down the middle of its long body.
"That's it!" Ironwood couldn't restrain himself from a very brief fist pump as he watched the decisive blow. "Now that-"
The Shinryu let out a wail, retreating backwards, a flow of black ash ascending from the ground from the dissolving Grimmflesh at the base of the walls.
"What?" He muttered, watching as the split heads of the Elder Grimm did not die, beginning to gather black ash like essence as it pulled back out of Specialist Annette's effective range. "No… no!"
"Oh fuck, this damned false god!" Clan Head Hitenmaki roared angrily to his side, "It's core isn't it's head! Of all the damned- SHIT!"
The blue haired young man gazed at a digital map to the side.
"My fleet won't be here for another half hour! And even if they were, they can't handle that thing! It'd tear them out of the skies! Why did the One Armed Huntsman disappear? As long as he'd even sit on the backlines after that it would have been a huge help to our morale!"
"Neither will the Atlasean 2nd Fleet." Ironwood spat, "And we can't get another descension so easily. The last time we were able to utilize that Huntsman was eight years ago."
"Ah some weird Semblance then. Damn it to hell. Only good news is that it's still forced that monstrosity back and Kuchinashi's armored support train just arrived and will be adding crossfire from the south end. They're detaching the rear artillery cars as we speak."
"It's the closest major settlement." Ironwood nodded, "And reinforcements from Taima Prep Academy will be better than nothing."
"Sorry to break it to you, but the majority of Taima Prep students are trained to be monkeys for the Houses. The majority of them are focused more on covert human action, rather than fighting Grimm."
"What illegal operations is Mistral running?" Ironwood massaged a temple. "What happened to training proper Huntsmen?"
Taking academies meant to ready Huntsmen and Huntresses and use them as ninjas of Mistral for political maneuvering instead of defending mankind and Remnant. Why did nobody ever seem to see that the Grimm threat was always the greatest enemy of man?
"...It's not illegal in our Kingdom, just frowned upon. It's why we have to change. Why we've strove for change in Oniyuri, why our Idealists sought to dig out our rotten roots. But all of that will be for nothing if the Capital falls."
"We cannot lose the Capital." Headmaster Goldcap agreed, a trio of large brass armors shaped somewhat like gorillas filled with crackling green Aura accompanied him. "It cannot be lost, at all cost."
Young Hitenmaki nodded, though he didn't understand the reason that the two Headmasters exchanged glances there.
"If we lose the Capital the people will lose hope. Even if we made Oniyuri the new Capital, the despair would cause us to fall apart in less than a decade." The young man clenched his remaining arm, still bandaged up from the aftershock of the gray lightning that had torn through the Mistralian VIP boxes.
He'd even lost his immediate family in that, a younger brother and his mother, even his team who had been accompanying him. But Lord Hitenmaki had chosen to fight over mourning. Admirable.
But the real reason they couldn't afford to lose Mistral's Capital was the Relic.
Though not the most powerful, perfect knowledge and three absolute answers every century would be the worst thing they could give up to Salem, a being that would outlive even the dust his body would become when he died.
It could not be allowed.
"It is still recoverable." Ironwood decided, "We still have reinforcements coming in. The Elder Grimm needs to recover. If I must, I will set together a hunting party to cut deep into the hoard and slay the Shinryu."
"Nobody will volunteer for that." Clan Head Hitenmaki snorted. "That's suicide. That damned creature is perched back on Mt. Gin-cho to the East now. That's over six kilometers of Grimm-flooded land and air. Even if we had Bullheads to spare, nobody could make that."
"It still might need trying."
"I'm… in agreement with Lord Hitenmaki, General." The Mistralian Headmaster frowned, "There has to be another way."
Ironwood gestured to the flying form of the two Maidens, accompanied by Penny Polendina, raining down lightning and fire as the Nikke girl provided support.
"Though I am hesitant to risk them, we have those that can carve a path."
"General! Utilizing the Maidens offensively-"
"We may have no choice!"
"Look, I might not be in the loop, but those flying masked Huntresses of yours will get swarmed too. Let's… let's see if Jaune's got any other aces up his sleeve. He had enough spare parts in his Semblance to remake the MDN, didn't he?"
Ironwood nodded, accepting the young Lord of Mistral's voice of reason.
If this meant that they could take the offensive, rather than sit on their asses, he was for it.
"We can't rely on a boy to fight our battles for us. It isn't right."
"Even so, Headmaster, we no longer have that luxury." Ironwood disagreed, "Jaune Arc is wise beyond his years. If he cannot provide us a solution with our current resources, we may have little else to show for our efforts. The Shinryu doesn't merely seem to be repairing its damage."
His gaze turned to the East, the monitor of the impromptu battlestation displaying the form of the injured Elder Grimm, the flood of ashy Grimmflesh floating into its direction, being absorbed by the monstrous creature.
"It's developing a second head."
"Not where" The Blacksmith smiled in the odd way a not quite human Afterian could. "But when you are needed most."
Ruby nodded in thanks with a smile, stepping into the light with her team, Jaune included, now that he'd returned back to his younger state, though the streaks of graying hair remained.
A reminder of his matured history, as Weiss might have put it.
Ruby tried to not smirk as she saw her Partner's eyes trace over Jaune's grayed locks.
Who knew Weiss was into older men?
Well the last boy she'd recalled Weiss showing any romantic interest in had been… uh, what was his name… Neptune? Yeah. She didn't recall his last name, but that sounded about right.
They were falling in a tunnel of light, not picking up speed, but… this was taking a bit.
"So did anyone bring any cards?" Yang joked, her left hand intertwined with Blake's right, getting a giggle from her girlfriend.
"I think if any of us had cards, we'd have devolved into that over dealing with the irritating madness that was the Curious Cat." Weiss groaned, her eyes closing as she rubbed her temples in irritation. "We'd have been better off for it."
"Well-"
Ruby's words were interrupted as wooden chains began to grow around her wrist extending in a circle to add her friends, budding flowers growing upon their wrists. Red, White, Yellow, Purple, and a rusty Brownish-Red.
"What's going on?" Blake asked, the purple flower buds at her wrist twisting as she inspected her wrist.
"Is something wrong? We've been falling for… weird, how long have we been falling?" Jaune inquired, the rusty flower buds on his wrist shaking as he shook his arm.
They all spoke in sequence.
"Couple minutes." Yang shrugged.
"Hours?" Blake mulled worriedly.
"It hasn't been that long." Weiss spoke with an eye roll, quickly realizing something was amiss.
"I want to say weeks for some reason." Ruby shuddered, suddenly afraid. "What's going on?"
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
"Who was that?" Weiss's eyes squinted. "Did anyone else hear that?"
Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.
"I don't like this." Yang shuddered. "This voice sounds familiar and somehow that makes it worse."
Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
"It's sort of… like a chant, isn't it? Like a prayer?" Blake closed her eyes, listening and focusing to the words. "Like some weird attempt at poetry."
Let the depth of my soul act as supplementation. Let Passion Overflow.
"Either a prayer, or some sort of voodoo magic chant." Yang shuddered, "It gives me the creeps."
Raise a wall, against the winds that shall fall. Close the four Cardinal Gates.
"Uh guys?" Ruby felt the wooden chains on her wrist grow warm, more red flower buds forming. "Anybody else getting what I'm feeling?"
Come out from the Darkness of History, known and unknown. Rotate the endless fragments of the shattered moon that illuminates the Kingdom.
"No, nobody else." Jaune confirmed, shaking his chains, "Ruby, do you feel alright?"
I shall declare here: Your body will serve under me.
"I don't like that sentence at all!" Weiss pulled at the chain trying to close the distance between herself and Ruby, but somehow a new length of chain simply grew in place.
My fate shall be with your blade. Submit to the beckoning of the Ḡ̶̨̤̲̠̠͕̠͚̮͓̟̱͎̦̭͎͎́͆̇͂̂͑̊͊̇a̵͖̳̦̣̠̪̰̭͕̗̓͌͛͑͂̒̇ç̷̨̲͇̭̣̜͔͔͔̜̩̮̑͋̓̀̾̈́̃̍̒́͌́̊̎́̈͘̚͝h̵̢͓̺̜͍͖͓̖͗̋̃̈́̇̀̀̓͐̆̕͝ͅå̵̢͙̬͙̱̠̘̬̼̝̭͕̮̦̾̀̑͋̋̌͆̿̽͐̎̐̑̍̆͊̕̕͝͠.
"AHHHH!" Ruby wasn't sure who screamed, was it her? Who was it? Jaune? The rest of her Team?
If you submit to this will and reason… then answer!
"Ow! That hurt! What was that?" Ruby held her head, seeing through teary eyes that the rest of her friends were doing the same. "Are you all-"
An Oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all the values of Heaven! I shall have dominion over all the evils of Hell!
The scent of roses filled the pillar of light they were falling within, her bracelet of wooden chains blooming as her length of chain separated from the rest.
"NO! RUBY!" Yang's arm reached out for her, as Ruby flew backwards and up.
"CATCH!" Blake's arm lashed out, her Gambol Shroud spinning in its kusarigama form, black ribbon fluttering behind, only for it to be flung back as crimson rose petals erupted heavily from Ruby's arm. "No! Come on! Not again!"
"Guys!" Ruby fought against the flow, trying to use her Semblance to fling herself to her teammates to no avail, her body beginning to turn into red streaks of light, into pure Aura. "Help!"
Her vision swam, her senses twisted, the light around her fading into darkness, the echoing voice now no longer like a series of stereos echoing about her form.
"From the Seventh Heaven, attended by Purpose, come forth from the Beyond The Realm, Protector of the Soul!"
There was a palpable heaviness in the air, as if there was a Maiden in her vicinity, her thoughts suddenly flashing longingly of Penny, as Ruby Rose felt the weight of magic in the air.
Words sprang forth to her lips against her will.
"Servant Archer answers your call." Ruby could feel eyes open, feeling her Silver Eyes ready to answer her call. "I ask of you, are you my master?"
A Faunus boy (girl?) knelt in a circle of wooden chains, like a magical circle for some strange ritual, surrounded by fluttering red rose petals.
"...Ruby? Ruby Rose?"