The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Details

Ozpin took a deep breath and then sighed, sad eyes on me.

"So," He whispered softly. "It's time then?"

I shrugged, meeting his eyes steadily.

"More or less," I replied. "I'm not going to leave right this instant, but the world's not going to stop ending just because I'm pussyfooting around. I'm going to have to go there eventually—and I'm pretty sure I'm running out of time."

"So it would seem," Ozpin acknowledged, looking down into his coffee cup again. "I suppose it's unlikely to be a coincidence that Cinder has chosen now to make her move."

"Even if she isn't targeting me specifically, it makes no difference," I said. "She's Famine, one of the Riders—if she starts something, odds are good that the other Grimm are bound to follow. If you're suspicions are correct and she intends to attack the ties between the Kingdoms, then it's just as possible that she's working to prepare an opening for her fellows."

"Divide and conquer," Ozpin agreed, sighing again. "I had much the same thought, I'm afraid. Yes, it seems like things have started to move and we've no choice now but to stop them. But…do you believe it's possible? For you to overcome Jericho Falls in your present state?"

He phrased it as an honest question and I considered it as such, nodding slowly.

"I believe so," I answered. "If not right now, then soon. I've busied myself with preparations of late and while I still have room to improve, I fear that my growth will soon slow unless I'm willing to venture further into dangerous territory. Either way, I'll run out of safe options soon. There are a few things I'd like to do beforehand, but…yes. I think I'll be able to do it."

After all, I thought, from what I've learned, they wanted me there. While I doubted they'd just open the doors and welcome me in, they needed me to find whatever it is inside—whatever it is that Keter said my name was so vital to. Which was pretty damn worrying in its own right, I had to say, but I was kind of running out of options at this point. I'd tapped my memories for all I could, spoken to my soul, poked the Riders to see what came out, but I kept running into the same problem.

I lacked information. No one who I could really trust knew—no one who actually knew would tell me. I needed to learn more if I wanted to have any hope of defeating Malkuth and his Riders, even if that meant walking into danger.

The one upside, I thought, was that I'd obviously been the one to store that information. If it was, as I suspected, hidden behind my true name—and I was betting there was more to getting in than just typing in a password—than Malkuth didn't know what was inside either, or he wouldn't need me to get in. I had a few suspicions about what I would find within, but from what I knew about myself, the information itself probably wasn't meant to help Malkuth; it was something else. Something important enough that I'd hidden it behind my true name, even knowing what Death could do to me, and important enough that despite having millennia to do so, the Grimm hadn't just destroyed it.

It may have been a longshot, but it was still a shot, which meant it came out ahead of most of my other options—which mainly boiled down to stumbling in the dark until something horrible happens, at which point I'd try not to die. And I had experience with that, sure, but it wasn't exactly a desirable state of being. I could grind my skills until Malkuth got tired of waiting and sent his minions to wipe out everything I knew and loved, but I'd hardly call that a victory; I needed to figure out what he was after, how to kick him in the dick repeatedly to keep him from getting it, and how to kill him in the process. Without the 'wipe out everything' part, if at all possible.

And if it had be me—which it had—than that was exactly the type of thing I'd keep locked up tight for my future self, if I couldn't do the deed personally. Along with something to keep him from simply destroying it.

I could have laughed at myself. Here I was, betting on someone I barely remembered being to turn what was obviously a trap into a possible advantage. Cross your fingers, me. If this works out, I'll love myself forever.

"If you believe you're ready, than I will believe in you, Jaune," Ozpin replied after a long moment, nodding slowly before turning his eyes to gaze at the city of Vale. After a long moment, he sighed again. "I'll tell you everything I can, but I may disappoint you. I don't have any good memories of Jericho Falls—but I don't have many memories of it, period. I can't emphasize enough how quickly things fell apart for us; truly, I barely remember the fighting. Most of what I remember was my comrades dying as the Grimm fell upon us. But…I admit I've spent quite some time obsessed with that place, driven by it. I gathered everything I could in the hopes of one day facing it again."

"But you never did?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"In the end, there was no real point in doing so," He claimed. "Jericho Falls was considered noteworthy because of its intense concentration of Grimm, but it's not particularly close to the Kingdom, has no strategic value, and there was never any proof that there was anything of value there. Long range scans of the place revealed nothing on this side and though I found that computer on the other, I wasn't able to access it. Any time I ran the numbers, the cost in lives needed to take the place far outweighed the potential rewards. With the situation always so tenuous, I can't afford to risk the lives of my Hunters for the sake of settling an old grudge."

I looked at him carefully, considering him for a long moment.

Having heard that, the logical thing for me to do was ask him for help. We both knew I could get around those problems and give him his chance, help him avenge his fallen friends—and I'd be able to bring him along, which was its own reward. Even as strong as I now was, I was fairly confident that Ozpin could take me and my entire team in a fight. If I was about the dive into hell, I'd sure as hell want him along for the ride, considering he was the best guy to pull me back out.

Assuming, of course, that I could trust him. That he was Ozpin, the Headmaster and my friend, rather than my greatest enemy. If he wasn't, then having him onboard would be invaluable.

But if he was, it would really suck to find out in my moment of glory. I could imagine it—I unlock the computer, Death kills me and wipes me clean, and next time I reincarnate, assuming Malkuth allows the human race to continue existing afterwards, I'm welcomed by a horde of super Grimm every time I draw attention to myself. If I knew that the trap he'd set may have had a counter-trap built into it, than presumably Malkuth knew and had planned a counter to my counter. As those things went, having Death on hand to kick me in the dick so hard my head popped off was a fairly good one; it was what I would probably do.

Ozpin especially would be a good choice for such a thing, thanks to his time manipulation—if he was on hand when I learned what I needed, he might be able to travel back in time to kill me before I learned or to ensure I did too quickly to make use of it. Seen in that light, a time manipulator would make a pretty good choice for Death's host. And the downside to him being stronger than my entire team combined was that he was stronger than my entire team combined; assuming I could actually keep him from slaughtering us instantly or before the fight began, I suspected our time of survival would still be fairly brief.

On the other hand, if he wasn't Death, his presence could be the difference between life and death, and how could I justify excluding him.

"Do you want in?" I asked him, keeping my thoughts off my face and out of my voice. "We talked about it before, I believe—and I'd be happy to have you watching my back."

Best to leave my options open. If necessary, Raven and I could just attack the place without telling him. If it turned out we couldn't manage without him and could be sure we wouldn't be betrayed, then we could just as easily bring him along. No sense in ruining that beforehand.

Ozpin turned to look at me and seemed tempted.

"I want to," He said. "Truly. For those that died while I lived and because I lived. For years after I escaped that place, it was all I could dream of; it's what drove me to become stronger, what led me to where I am today. But…"

"You can't?" I asked.

He sighed again, seeming to age before my eyes.

"After what you told me about Cinder, no," He admitted. "Though I dreamt of it for years, I dream of other things now, and I can't risk their loss. If Cinder's aim is this school and I am the only thing keeping her from acting overtly, then if she were to learn of my absence…"

"Boom," I said. "Bye, bye, Beacon. I get it."

"I'm sorry," He said, bowing his head low. "The information contained within Jericho Falls is likely to be invaluable—"

"But it's pointless if everything we've sworn to protect is destroyed while we're off getting it," I replied with a shrug. "Like I said, I get it. Besides, if I'm wrong and I do die…best we don't keep all our eggs in one basket, right?"

"Don't talk like that," Ozpin said firmly. "You won't die, Jaune. I told you that I believe in you."

I smiled at him again and shrugged.

"Then believe in me," I said. "I'll manage."

"I'm sorry," He said again, shaking his head and putting his cup down. "It seems I will have to depend on you this time, Jaune."

"Leave it to me," I told him. "But really, anything you could tell me would help."

"I'll draw you up a list of the Grimm I saw personally," He said. "It may only detail the outer perimeter, but perhaps it will be of some assistance. Beyond that, I have only what supposition and conjecture."

"Somehow, I have the feeling that what you consider conjecture, others would take as fact," I answered dryly. "And I'll take whatever I can get, Ozpin."

He took another deep breath and looked at me grimly.

"This is nothing but a guess on my part," He began. "A fear, really. But I told you before that I say the Humbaba there, yes?"

I nodded once, listening.

"Truly, they were quite prominent," He continued. "It's rare to see any of them on Vytal, but there they were, mixed in even amongst the rabble—the center of every formation. True, there were other mighty creatures there, but in both numbers and power, the Humbaba were the greatest threat. And it made me wonder why. Jericho Falls was guarded by countless Grimm, many of them far stronger than the norm, so much so that the better part of a hundred Hunters couldn't get past the metaphorical door. What then lay within its depths?"

Slowly, I felt my heart drop as I followed his words to their conclusion.

"If not for recent events, even I might think myself ridiculous for suggesting it," Ozpin murmured, nodding at my expression. "But perhaps the Humbaba are there to guard more than just the treasure within Jericho Falls' depths—perhaps they are present in their role as honor guards. For years, a part of me couldn't help but think that perhaps…perhaps Gilgamesh is there."

The name wasn't hard to recognize, nor were the implications difficult to understand. Gilgamesh was one of the nigh-mythical Grimm that came up in the same breath as Ziz and Jormungandr—meaning I counted him among the creatures that had become nowhere-near-mythical enough as of late. Like all the Grimm of its stature, there was pretty much no factual information about it; creatures like those were so powerful that you couldn't really have eye-witness reports, on account of the fact that practically no one would survive such an encounter. The only reason their existence had even been considered prior to my whole 'accidentally wake up Ziz' thing was because sometimes, very similar legends would pop up in the myths of areas that were very far apart and which had possessed no recorded interactions.

In that sense, the 'study' of such creatures had really been more about tracing things back and possibly finding points of historical divergence and convergence. The nature of the Grimm was such that it was common for nations to dream up all sorts of things about them—possibly causes for their existences, godlike members of their species, and more. The Grimm had been seen as everything from animal spirits to demons, so it was pretty much inevitable; if the epidemic of the creatures was considered a punishment from a god, for instance, than a godlike Grimm was natural. And given Malkuth's existence and the nature of his greater minions…well, there was a bit of merit in that interpretation.

But if two societies on wholly different continents had the exact same description of an outlandish, monstrous creature, then the most probable explanations are that they either exist somewhere on Remnant—and if it's a horrific monstrosity, it wasn't as though it would want for company—or that the two societies had shared knowledge, whether by means of a common ancestry or by meeting one another. There was also room for coincidence, of course, but when you're talking about creatures such as, say, the Humbaba? They were odd-looking enough that it was usually accepted as fairly unlikely.

With the legendary examples of the Grimm, people have debated back and forth which explanation is true, with the popular belief until recently being that the Kingdoms of Remnant had connected with one another in the distant past…which, in fairness, was true. Part of the reason that such a belief was the fact that those beasts hadn't been seen in enormous periods of time and that there was no actual proof of their existence.

The other part, of course, was simple fear. No one really wanted to live on the same planet as creatures such as Crom or Ziz—hell, I'd just as soon live in a world where they didn't exist.

I should be so lucky.

What I knew of Gilgamesh, then, was largely conjecture. It was hard to say anything for sure because while a creature like Ziz stood out clearly by being a hideous freak of nature, 'Gilgamesh' was the name given to a vaguer entity; the supposedly 'human' Grimm. Not even the 'sorta, kinda, maybe you'd think so, if you were super drunk' human of the Humbaba; he was supposed to actually seem human, baring the traits that set him apart.

Compared to other Grimm, it was an easy thing to imagine—so much so that pretty much every Kingdom has something like that in their mythos; it's just the type of thing that's easy to think off. Add in edge cases like the Pandora Shells and it's easy to see why most people are dismissive of the idea; even if they'd never met, people in entirely different nations could come up with the idea independently and probably had. So much so that whether he should even be considered amongst the more mythical examples of Grimm was debated fiercely until new information came to light during the collaboration between Vacuo and Mistral's libraries after the Great War.

At that time, certain similarities were noticed in the myths. Similar portrayals, mostly; a Grimm surrounded by an entourage of Humbaba, even in lands where the creatures were rarely sighted. Similar sounding names, in a relative sense—the Vacuan Bilgames, the Mistrali Gilgamos, the Atlesian Jiljamish, and older variations. While the description of a humanoid Grimm was vague, certain details often recurred independently of one another, and so on.

In time, a report was compiled and filed, a documentary was published, and Gilgamesh entered that ranks of the legendary Grimm. Given that in many of the sources, he had ties of some kind to the Humbaba, some came to believe that he was seen as an evolved form of the beasts in a fashion similar to Crom Cruach's obvious ties to its lesser cousins. Other legends implied that he might have actually been human once, a legendary king that had sought immortality and found it; sometimes it was unknowing of the cost, other times willing to pay it. He may have been an ancient sorcerer that had tampered with dark powers and been consumed by them, perhaps in a fashion similar to how I would have been devoured by Conquest had I lacked my Semblance.

Perhaps most worryingly, he could have simply been a massively, massively powerful person who'd been taken by Conquest. Many of the depictions had been compared to the infectees of Pandora Shells, so it was unfortunately possible. It was hard to say when there were no solid sources for his existence; the closest thing to a confirmed sighting of him involved the destruction of an ancient Kingdom. According to the account of a Kingdom that had existed at the time, Gilgamesh might have been there.

It was hard to say. Everyone who was actually there died.

I took a slow breath, lifting my eyes to meet Ozpin's as I exhaled.

"If you suspect it to be true, I'll accept it as such and plan for the possibility," I said. "But I have to admit, I'd really prefer it if you were wrong."

"I often find myself wishing that," Ozpin replied, sighing himself. "But I often find myself disappointed when I do. In the brief combat I bore witness to, I found myself thinking that the Grimm around Jericho Falls moved too well as a group. While it's not uncommon for the Grimm to work together or for the older, stronger creatures to behave with at least some degree of intelligence, those around Jericho falls moved as a unit. In terms of teamwork, I thought they may have had us outmatched—which was unfortunate, as they outmatched us in everything else, too. Still, I found myself wondering what could make such varied creatures work together in such a way, instilling discipline in everything from the Humbaba to the Beowolves."

"You think they were obeying something stronger?" I asked. Well, tried to ask, anyway; it was hard to make it sound like a question when I knew the answer already.

"I do," He replied. "After considering it at length, I decided that it wasn't something unheard of or even uncommon—oftentimes, stronger Grimm will command weaker ones. While minor Grimm such as Beowolves are known to attack aggressively even when faced with an opponent they are hopelessly outclassed by, the introduction of a Beowolf Alpha can curb the tendencies of the entire group. While it's limited, the more intelligent Grimm can command their fellows to hold back or withdraw, sometimes even demonstrating the ability to issue complex commands. It's a very common thing to see, really…it just seemed bizarre to witness it on such a scale."

I hummed in agreement. Even basic coordination could make a huge difference in a fight and we weren't just talking about a pack of Beowolves here; if there was an honor guard of Humbaba around the ruins, they'd quickly jump from being a difficult opponent to a terrifying one, even before adding in everything else. And if there were as men Grimm around Jericho Falls as everything had led me to believe…I could see how Hunters had gotten slaughtered.

The trick would be keeping myself from following their example.

"Then it's safe to say that something's there," I said. "Which isn't surprising, really; given its value, it makes sense that the place would have a guardian, on the off chance that the Grimm outside weren't enough."

I meant the words; I honestly didn't find it surprising in the slightest. Jericho Falls seemed like the kind of place I'd run into some brutally unfair boss monster, after all—it was just that kind of place. I hadn't considered Gilgamesh specifically, but maybe I should have; there was going to be something horrible waiting for me there and most of the legendary Grimm were large enough that you could see them kilometers away even if you didn't have super eyes. If no one had noticed at a glance, there were really so many things it could be, unless Crom Cruach was waiting around underground.

It didn't change things much. Those monsters were an obstacle I'd been meaning to overcome, after all. If anything, I was more worried about was the possibility that Gilgamesh was tied to Conquest, simply because it would limit the amount of support I could bring to the fight.

"I thought much the same," Ozpin mused, dipping his head in agreement. "Beyond that bad news, however, I don't know what else I can tell you. I suppose I could tell you a bit about the area, but I expect your grasp of such things will far exceed what little I remember through the terror and pain."

I shrugged.

"It's fine," I said. "You've done enough and I'm glad I got a chance to speak to you about it. Sorry for dredging up bad memories."

"Not at all," Ozpin replied, shaking his head very slightly. "If anything, I view this as a chance to finally put such things to rest. Is there anything else I can assist you with, Jaune?"

I made a show of considering it before nodding.

"Actually," I began. "There were a few things I wanted to ask you about several of your students…"

Trial Run

When I finally left Ozpin's office, it was with a fair bit on my mind. Pretty much everything I'd learned was concerning to one degree or another, and it was frustratingly hard to figure out what was definitively true.

The most recent problem might have well been nothing, but I hadn't gotten where I am by ignoring potential problems—instead, I tended to obsess over them until I figured out a way to make them go away, which was sadly still a work in progress for the issues that actually mattered. The fourth member of Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha's team was supposedly a young girl named Cosmo Spumone. I say supposedly because when I scoured the school with my senses, there was no one by that name. I didn't find anyone unusual there, either; or, at least, no one that struck me as such. And while it was possible that I'd missed something important or overlooked some clue…well, my senses being what they were, it seemed like an unlikely explanation.

More likely, 'Cosmo' simply wasn't there. Which, needless to say, was a bit odd, seeing as Pyrrha had claimed she'd only left moments ago; for me not to notice her, she would have had to leave the school at great speed and at just the right time to avoid me. And seeing that she had avoided me and that her departure coincided almost exactly with my arrival, it seemed unlikely to be coincidental. Again, the more probable answer was that she'd left in order to avoid me.

Of course, that was a bit easier said than done. While Raven and I had arrived at something of a distance from Beacon and someone could have left before the school entered the full range of my perceptions, we'd kept a distance specifically in order to avoid being noticed. While that wasn't necessarily the same as saying we weren't noticed, after Qrow and Taiyang, we'd both decided to err on the side of caution; I'd needed to jog about twenty kilometers to reach Beacon. While it was, again, possible that someone could pick me out at that range, it seemed a touch unlikely, especially since I had skills that helped me avoid notice to an extent.

And yet, unlikely as it seemed, she had left just in time to avoid me. Unlikely wasn't the same thing as impossible, as I was unfortunately well aware, and I did my best to keep it in mind. So, it wasn't impossible that someone with good enough instincts—or Sense Danger or so on—might have sensed me and decided to run rather than stick around to meet me face to face. That'd be nice, in its own way; I was more used to people who turned out to be more than they appeared making me want to run away. I wouldn't wholly mind being on the other side of that equation, assuming it wasn't just a ploy designed to screw me over later.

But that still left the matter of escaping before I sensed them in turn. While I hadn't exactly run full speed towards Beacon, simply because I hadn't wanted to damage the surrounding area too much, I'd still approached at a fairly significant clip; they wouldn't have very long to escape before the fullness of my senses overlapped with Beacon, at which point going unnoticed would have been difficult to say the least. I couldn't hide from my own senses; I couldn't even come close. Anyone who could cover every angle needed to do so would probably have also been able to just leave and would have probably realized that it was vastly easier to do so, and for the moment, I assumed that was what they'd done instead. It would still have been difficult, however, necessitating either very high physical stats, a speed-related Semblance, teleportation, or something else to that effect, on top of whatever they'd done to see me coming. The list of people who could do both of those things and be on a team at Beacon was short to the point that I honestly couldn't think of anyone to put on it.

I spent a moment puzzling over that before something crazy occurred to me.

What if, just maybe, I wasn't the center of the universe? It was hard to remember so times since I was the center of a millennia old conspiracy and the world—or, at least, its entire dominant species—was actively working against me, but not everything had to be about me. If someone had decided to up and run away in terror, I was hardly the only possible cause; after all, I hadn't come back to Beacon alone.

I'd brought Raven with me. Raven who had wanted to check up on her daughter, who would have been in the library, and who had positioned a portal to do so by the time I'd reached the school and confirmed Ozpin's position from a distance. I had long sense gotten used to Raven's portals, as she had a tendency to watch over me during missions—especially missions that had a high probability of going to hell, which was pretty much every mission I'd ever been on in my entire life. It was something I just accepted when it occurred; I didn't really have a leg to stand on when it came to silently watching people and I appreciated it a fair bit besides. She did the same for the rest of our team, as well, ensuring no one got into too much trouble and standing by to extract them if they did. Besides, perhaps more than anyone else on the planet, I understood how Raven felt. Given the nature of her power and the position she'd put herself in, watching things from a distance was often the only thing she could do.

As such, I never complained about it, even when she checked in on us at random times as if to make sure we were still there—and nobody else noticed that she was there at all, so it wasn't an issue.

Or so I'd though, but thinking about it now…if I was considering that someone had senses sharp enough to detect me at such a massive range, I also had to consider the possibility of them detecting Raven when she was right there. Because while it was difficult to detect Raven through her portals, it wasn't impossible; I'd done it, after all, back when my senses were significantly less than they were now. Qrow and Taiyang, who'd been familiar with her, had proven they had some ability to do so as well. At the very least, it had more precedent than the alternative, and there were metric fucktons of people who would run away if they senses Raven coming.

It was possible, I decided. It might require someone who had sensed her before and who could, in turn, fool Raven's senses—but there was some precedent for that, too. Keeping that thought in mind, I scanned the school more carefully, this time paying more attention to the hair, skin cells, and various other bits and pieces that normal people left lying all over the place, along with things like fingerprints. Being a school, there was plenty of that lying around and it took even me a little while to sort through and cross reference everything. Pericognition thankfully smoothed the process along and I left the matter to my subconscious for a while.

The answer it turned up was one I'd expected, but wasn't entirely sure how to address. I was all but certain I knew who the fourth team member was, but I wasn't entirely sure how to deal with her. She was gone for the time being and Ozpin already seemed to be keeping an eye on her, but…

I suppose was another thing to keep track of. I'd just have to deal with her if it became necessary.

Putting that matter on hold, I then returned to actively pondering if Ozpin was a Rider. As I tended to do, I quickly decided that the man behind Vale might as well have been behind a veil for all that he really gave away. What little I was able to take away from the sight of his soul, to his refusal to come to Jericho Falls, to what I was slowly beginning to grasp about Beacon's true nature, to the information he'd shared—in the end, I couldn't even decide if it made him more or less suspicious. I spent a few more moments brooding over the issue before tossing it onto the backburner again.

The bigger issue, then, was Jericho Falls. Assuming what he'd told me was true—which I may as well for the time being, seeing as I'd quickly realize the truth once I reached the area itself—Jericho Falls was about what I'd expected; a few steps closer to being hell on Remnant than…well, the rest of Remnant. I'd known from the beginning that I'd probably be in for the fight of my life, but now I might know something about the nature of that fight.

Did it change anything, though?

I wasn't sure.

Better fix that.

"Raven," I said once I decided I was far enough from Beacon, deep in the Emerald Forest. Raven was watching me, renewing her vigil after I left Ozpin's office, probably on the off chance I'd done something that might get me killed. I'd like to tell her she knew me better than that, but the problem was that she did know me fairly well and I attracted trouble like a super magnet. "Can you make a door for me, please? And one back to Grimm if it's not too much trouble."

There was a moment of swirling air before the portal consolidated itself.

"Are we going to continue training?" Raven asked, sitting calmly in a comfy-looking chair in her home. Seeing as she probably had to spend most of her day sitting and gathering information from who knows how many people, it struck me as a wise investment.

"Soon," I assured. "But there are several things I wish to test before we do and I'm uncertain how much destruction they may cause. I think it would be best if I practiced them alone, somewhere that nothing will be missed."

"Ah," Raven answered, nodding but otherwise remaining still. I passed through the portal she made and then walked into a second one moments later, emerging at the edge of the destruction I'd wrought on the dark continent. Had it been anywhere else, I might have felt a bit bad about it, but here? Here I just wanted to make it bigger.

And I knew just where to start.

Brahmastra (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: Special.

One of the legendary techniques wielded by the Astradhari, it was said to invoke the power of the Creator. Used as a skill, it can either empower an existing weapon or create one entirely from Aura—in either case, the effect is the same, drawing Light from the realms above to fuel a reaction. Empowered by the user's Aura, the matter summoned is torn apart and reforged in a process that draws out the power hidden within and forges it into a mighty weapon. Said to be a weapon of utmost destruction, its power was such that it could annihilate cities and its use left fields barren of life. Power increases with WIS. The use of the Brahmastra per day as it draws deeply from the user's soul, reaching through it to draw down the power of Creation.

Damage: Special.

Defense Penetration: Special.

Range: Special.

Automatically inflicts 'Decay' status effect on anyone who receives damage or who spends significant time in an area where the skill was used.

The duration and effect of fallout depends on skill level.

'Decay' status effect may not be removed through mundane means.

Number of uses per day: 1.

Power began to gather in my right hand even as my flesh was stripped away by Sahasrara. It vanished quickly, burning away from the surface of my arm and spreading outwards to the rest of my body until my soul was bared. As I changed, I felt my reserves of power swell, burgeoning with each passing moment. Trails of light began to emerge from each of my one million eyes, coiling around my limbs and up the length of my body until it reached my hand and began to take form.

It started as a jagged shape, baring more resemblance to crystal than the energy-forms of its predecessors, like a shard of stained glass. As more power gathered in it, other shapes began to appear around it, emerging from the air and fitting themselves to the edges as seamlessly as if they were the pieces of a puzzle. When it began, it was no but a few edges peeking out from the grip of my hand, but soon it began to take the shape of a polearm with a smooth and perfect surface. I counted the seconds and regulated the flow of power to the forming weapon to insure I wasn't left defenseless if something attacked me, but even fueling it with my enormous well of power, I ended up counting as the seconds passed.

Brahmastra didn't have a charge time, as such—or rather, it took however long was needed to gather the required amount of power, which I judged—based off the rate the weapon was forming at and taking into account the skills I had that reduced costs—to be somewhere in excess of ten million MP. Even more me, it was a number that took time to gather, even if I was able to regulate the flow; even though Quick Soul had grown greatly thanks to my almost constant use of it, it couldn't make me draw in power any faster. All told, it took me nearly half a minute to fully form the attack, at which point I took a moment to look at it.

Despite the power that had gone into it, it was a simple looking weapon; a spear of solid white, static and physical. It didn't seem to weigh about the same amount as a spear of its size and I could feel the power held within it—but it wasn't enough. Even this was nothing more than the shell of the Brahmastra, woefully incomplete.

So I reached out to the only thing that could finish it, scanning the area one last time before closing my eyes. I felt the paths of power flowing through me and followed them from root to crown, touching upon my chakras one by one in the process. When at last I came to Sahasrara, I took a breath and touched it lightly before reaching through—and felt a response.

Power, the raw light of creation, flooded into me without any physical source, because I was drawing from beyond the physical. I reached out to the place above Sahasrara and higher than Keter, the light unshaped by the Sephirot. It burned through my Chakras—my soul—like fire from the sun, turning the thin trails streaming from my eyes into gushing, luminous rivers. This wasn't MP, per se, wasn't quite anything yet, but it filled the shell of the Brahmastra and made it something more.

Flesh began to form over my body as more and more power was drawn into the spear. It started at the furthest parts of my body and progressed quickly over the rest of my body until I was back to my human form—and the Brahmastra was glowing like nothing I'd ever see. It glowed from within like I'd trapped the sun inside, shining through the veil of crystal as if it wasn't even there. It wasn't hot, but the sheer amount of light could have blinded any normal person who looked at it, stripping away their sight in an instant. At the same time, I felt exhausted in some tiny part of me, the passing of the Light through my body and soul an experience that drained me on a level similar to Sahasrara but…deeper, somehow.

But I'd done it. I'd forged a weapon straight out of legend.

And without a moment's hesitation, I reared back and threw it as far away from me as possible. I put all my strength, physical and mental, into the throw, sending the spear into a high enough arc that when it reached its zenith, it illuminated the world around us like the noonday sun—and when it fell, it dyed the sky with all the colors of the dawn. It touched down more than a few kilometers away from me.

It hardly seemed to make a difference.

What happened next was hard to separate as several things happened in quick succession. Something exploded in the distance and there were waves of energy all across the spectrum that were blinding even for me. I felt a flash of fire that beggared description, cloaked by massive clouds of dust and debris, and the heat of the explosion washed over me even as it burned the surrounding Lotus Eater trees to ash and charcoal. At almost the same time, there was a wave of force that shattered the ruined trees for kilometers around, crushing stone and tearing up earth, even as it seemed to make the world tremble and shake. My body, which weighed little more than anyone else my size, was caught in the blast and flung high and far with a power that clawed at my body and seared at my reinforced skin.

I caught myself someone high above it all, momentarily disoriented until I had a moment to shake it off. I blinked once and focused, turning my gaze to an area that had changed greatly between one moment and the next, stripped mercilessly bare by the power of the Brahmastra. Now that it wasn't quite so bright, I could see it still, settling deep within the earth and air and water of the continent, poisoning it to the core. That same energy clung to me and I could feel it moving, trying to attack me from within until I touched my face and healed myself several times over.

But while its invisible effects were noteworthy, the visible ones were perhaps more impressive. As I looked through the clouds of smoke—so large that they seemed to collapse beneath their own weight—I just had to…marvel at what I'd done.

The crater I'd left was nearly fifty meters deep at its lowest point and the better part of a kilometer wide, to say nothing of the surround area, which had been burned shattered for kilometers in every direction.

Kilometers that had been populated by nothing but the Grimm.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

All at once, I heard a multitude of rising cries. Some resembled roars and howls, others more alien sounds like a single, strange note rising higher and higher or an odd blowing sound. I turned towards the sources, picking them out of the smoke and fire—the creatures of Grimm that had proven tough enough to survive even that display of power. I saw a Humbaba alongside a Panoptes, a Morrigan taking to the air, and a Garmr, among other things, all still standing tall.

But they looked different now, like melting clay dolls. Lengths of red flesh shined through where white armor and black skin and been blown away, and it seemed to…grow and spread by the second. The 'flesh' within the wounds quivered oddly, seeming to almost liquefy, and even as the wounds began to heal and close they did so wrongly. I saw one of the Garmr's legs heal over in wrinkled black skin, with the smooth armor that should have grown from the limb instead piercing through the flesh oddly, as if it had partially reformed within. The Morrigan's wings seemed twisted and skeletal, as if bones had broken and healed in strange ways. Most of the Humbaba's skin was simply gone and didn't seem to be healing at all, instead replacing the exposed red matter endlessly.

And for all that, they were still nightmarishly powerful.

The Descending Terror

Level 174

Humbaba

The Eyes in the Darkness

LV 171

Panoptes

Death on Wings of Night

LV 176

Morrigan

The Hound of Hell

LV 175

Garmr

I looked them over once, taking a slow, quiet breath before cracking my neck. Though it sent shocks of bizarre pain through me, I stripped away my mortal form again and unleashed the power of my soul with Sahasrara—and then took it a step further.

Aurora (Active & Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The unleashed manifestation of one's soul. Now grown far beyond the limits of its mortal frame, it bursts forth to shine like the rising sun. This skill enhances the user's Aura, giving them the power to rise from the deepest darkness to shed light on the world. Through this technique, the user's Aura is further refined and enhanced, reaching past its limits of defending, healing, and enhancing to scour away those it recognizes as enemies. Power grows with the user's MP.

Greatly enhance all benefits of the user's Aura.

Causes damage to all enemies within range.

Range: 100 meters.

And all at once, the skies above Grimm were illuminated by rolling patterns of light.