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.

Pressure

It was hard to describe what happened when I unleashed Ohr Ein Sof, because it wasn't just a gathering of power or a tremendous attack, though it was also those things. It was the Light, given shape in the world in a more…honest? Real? In a truer sense then what was created by Lux Aeterna. The thing is, I didn't know what the Light really was or where it came from or how it worked. There wasn't much I could really say about it, because the Light was above even Keter, which in and of itself lay above the mind's ability to comprehend; it was quite possible that any attempts to truly describe or understand it were doomed from the start.

Nonetheless, I gave it my best effort.

This world and everything in it was the 'Kingdom.' It was the Light given form, thought applied to action, the culmination of a process—the result of the Tree of Life. The Sephirot, in a sense and among many other things, represented the flow between two ends of a spectrum, the process in which one became the other. On the one hand, there was the Light, something even I didn't understand except in a vague sense; it was the true form of this world, the underlying principle behind everything, the source and the end point. Everything in this world was part of the Light, in a way similar to how matter and energy were interchangeable; different states of the same thing. Was there more to it than that? Almost certainly. But that was the general idea.

But the Tree of Life went both ways. Things flowed down it to take shape in the world in ways both literal and metaphorical, and they flowed back up to…do something, I guess. There was no way of knowing what was up there and despite dying, I had no memory of it, or at least nothing my mind could make sense of. Whatever came after death and before rebirth was presumably up there somewhere, which was something I found both fascinating and terrifying. To me, it was like a box holding the answer to something people had wondered about since…probably as long as Mankind has existed, but there was only one way to open it. That seemed fitting in a way; the saying went that if you stopped learning, you started dying—which was applicable to me in a saddening number of ways, really—but in light of the existence of souls and reincarnation, I suppose that death itself was a lesson of sorts. I hoped it was one I'd learned from the first time around, if so.

Ohr Ein Sof, however, was something special—the Light Without End, flowing both up and down the Tree of Life. The materialization, or reduction, or creation of the Light that should exist only above Keter within the world of Malkuth.

My Light, specifically.

The moment I initialized the skill, my power turn in upon itself. My Aura seemed to shrink back into my skin, along with the light around me, energy spiraling down into the center of my being and then up, up, up, through the gateway of Sahasrara and then far beyond it. For a moment, I felt like I'd vanished, as if I'd been consumed by it and sucked down some kind of cosmic black hole, pulling in everything around me in the process. I felt it when I stopped being 'me,' as I was reduced to pieces that were hard to label. A will, perhaps, a thought, an awareness—and then nothing so easily defined. In the end, I was nothing but 'something that exists' and 'something aware of its existence.' I wasn't reduced to nothing, per se, but to a state of 'something' that was both infinitely distant and unspeakably close to nothing.

And at the same time, I became something else. As I was boiled down to nothing but 'Me,' everything I was became a part of 'Me.' My memories, my beliefs, my power, my will, my actions and intentions, my hopes and dreams, my body, my voice, my skills—everything 'I' was revealed itself as nothing but a part of 'Myself', luminous and unending and without anything to distinguish it from the rest. If you boiled everything away and reduced me down to the most basic level, beyond physicality, action, mind, or will, this was what remained.

'Me.' Not even Jaune Arc or Jian Bing or Keter or anything else created by the labels of the world, but simply 'Me.' Or, perhaps, 'Metatron,' for whatever difference it made. And for a period of time I couldn't recognize, much less understand, that was all I was.

And then the process reversed, and everything that had been subsumed rose back to the surface. I existed, thought, remembered, understood, and was, in that moment. I was here, alive, human, and real again, in a way I could understand.

But all that I was or had been? I brought it along for the ride.

A thin column of light flashed from my outstretched hand to the center of the Gilgamesh's chest, no wider around then my pinky finger. For an instant, that was all it was, something almost unbelievably small for the process that had created it—and then it expanded. I didn't follow it up with another wave of power or anything of the sort, because this wasn't the devouring light of Lux Aeterna; the light drew power from itself, seemingly expanding it without limit. Instead of drawing power into itself, it released it into the world as if opening a door in a way that reminded me of Bianca. What had been a narrow column of light for a brief moment expanded quickly into a growing beam that could have devoured mountains. It grew to such an extent that the angle of the attack seemed to overflow its bounds, turning from an acute blast to an obtuse one as power slipped over my hand and back, expanding in all directions and slipping between the spaces of my fingers. The sheer light of the attack almost seemed to wash the world away, reducing it to an endless plane of brightness and power that consumed both me and my target.

Ohr Ein Sof (Active) LV1 EXP: 37.72% MP: 144000; Special

The Infinite Light from which all things are born, the truth that is hidden behind all that is. The soul of the user revealed within the Kingdom, briefly freed from the chains that bind them to mortal form, has become a brand of annihilation for all that stands in their path. A skill that is only possible for those able to reach above the spheres and grasp the Light in its pure form, it has the power to return things to the way they were in the beginning.

Slight chance of 'Unmaking' targets, returning them to a form that has no place within this world.

Slight risk of 'Unravelling.'

Damage increases with understanding of the Self and nature of Emanation.

Current Base Damage: Special.

This was my first trump card, an attack that goes beyond destructive power—perhaps even beyond the nature of physical destruction itself. Needless to say, for various reasons, it was one of my more…disorienting skills to use and something even I had to be careful with, but for something like this it was one of my most powerful skills and was one of the reasons why I honestly thought that maybe, just maybe, I could do this.

And when the light slowly faded, the results spoke for themselves. For leagues in front of me, the world had been changed, as if countless tons of earth had simply vanished. Much of the smoke that the Brahmastras had created had disappeared alongside it, coming undone as it was pierced through by my light. And Gilgamesh, the focus and target of the attack…

Well, he looked like he'd seen better days. His armor had cracked in half a dozen places and in various spots, small chunks of flesh had been outright removes, cutting tiny red holes in his flesh that released a kind of luminous silver smoke. And while he was unfortunately alive and obviously ready to continue fighting, he'd just as obviously been hurt by the attack where he'd brushed off the Brahmastras—and the look in his red eyes made it clear that he knew it.

In the wake of Ohr Ein Sof, simply retaining oneself was a challenge—both for the target and for the user. This time, we'd both survived only a little worse for the wear, but it wasn't something either of us could make light off or brush off. The simple fact that I'd used it at all in this fight showed how serious I was about winning and what I could draw upon to do so.

The only question now what how the Grimm would respond to that revelation. I was pushing him now, had successfully struck a blow he couldn't simply ignore, and it was all but certain that he'd respond to that. Ohr Ein Sof wasn't something I could risk using frequently and as the battle wore on, both its effectiveness and dangers would rise. Using it early on was a good choice in that regard and I still had my fair share of tricks up my sleeve just in case, but—

"Finally," An unfamiliar voice said, the tone low as it interrupted my thoughts. Gilgamesh continued to watch me as he quietly spoke. "You've kept me waiting for a very long time, Archangel."

Physically, I didn't react in the slightest—I had better control of myself than that, and I was very careful when it came to what I allowed myself to show, especially to my enemies. Mentally, I was surprised, but only momentarily. After all, while most of the Grimm didn't speak, that didn't necessarily mean anything; while the weaker Grimm were extremely animalistic, the older Grimm were intelligent enough that the idea of them being able to associate concept with noises wasn't hard to believe and they certainly had time enough to learn to understand human speech. If they had any difficulties in that regard, it was probably more a matter of mechanics; speaking a human language with mouthparts that obviously weren't designed for such a thing. But Conquest and Famine had spoken easily enough, given a human body to ride around in, though it probably helped that they could simply steal such skills from their hosts. Given a human enough body or some other way of compensating, it wasn't that odd that other Grimm could do the same. And for something as ancient and powerful as the legendary Gilgamesh…

Well, it wasn't that strange, is the point. Really, if I thought about it like that, the weird thing wasn't so much that he was able to speak human languages so much as the fact that he could speak a language I understood. A few thousand years was plenty of time to become a master linguist, but at the same time it kind of necessitated it; Remnant had had enough fallen civilizations and enough spoken language that for a sufficiently ancient being, even knowing a thousand languages might not be enough. Modern Vytalian was actually a fairly recent bastardization of a bunch of other languages that was only a couple hundred years old at the broadest interpretation and, arguably, hadn't truly been formed until open communications between the Kingdoms were established. A part of me had to wonder how a Grimm who apparently spent most of his time sitting around in the middle of nowhere managed to pick it up. I was kind of doubtful that he could just walk into one of the Kingdoms and strike up a conversation, at least not without terrifying the populace. Had one of the people he'd killed dropped a translation booklet or was this just another weird Grimm thing?

But, more importantly, how should I respond? Should I respond at all? I liked to think I'd come a long ways from my socially awkward days, but we were having a fight here. Sure, I was usually the first to interrupt a battle with words, but that was usually because I was either terrified and about to die or completely lost and in need of more information. Was I either of those things right now?

…Possibly; nothing immediately jumped out at me, but I seemed to spend most of my life lost, confused, and in a nebulous amount of danger. I was fighting an ancient Grimm here, too—I was in plenty of danger and there was plenty I could learn. Admittedly, I wasn't entirely sure how talking would help me with either of those things right now; in my experience, the Grimm were largely unhelpful unless too could get them to admit something unknowingly. It's like they didn't even want to tell me all their secret plans, the bastards.

The thing is, this wasn't just my usual scramble for survival; this was a fight I had to win and one where my friends were putting everything they had on the line to run interference. I was a master at dragging out conversations when it came to preserving my own life, but surprisingly, time wasn't on my side this time. If I stopped and had a nice chat with yet another godless abomination, that'd leave my friends fighting for their lives that much longer.

Of course, it also gave me a chance to check up on them. Even I couldn't afford to spare them much thought in a fight like this, but if we were just talking—

"Sorry for the delay," I replied without missing a beat, a slight smile pulling at my lips. I didn't relax, but I shifted my posture into a less aggressive stance, settling instead on self-assured confidence. I didn't need my eyes to see, so I didn't move them from the Grimm in front of me even as I scanned the area. "I was held up for a while. That's dying for you, I guess."

"Unlike you, I wouldn't know," Gilgamesh said back, lifting a hand to absently brush at his armor. The holes Ohr Ein Sof had put into his defenses welled with new matter, but it didn't seem to fit together quite right, leaving red pockmarks on the material. He looked down at it with what I assumed to be distaste. "Drawing from old tricks, I see. It's been a long time since anyone sought to strike me down with a Brahmastra. I thought the technique died with the fall of Vedic."

"Consider it a reminder that not everything is as dead as it might seem," I answered with a mocking shrug. "All sorts of things have been crawling out of the annals of history, lately—I thought it might be nice to bring back a few that were actually pleasant."

As I spoke, I quickly took stock of the details I'd noticed in the periphery—and, appropriately, with Pericognition. It would have alerted me if anything major had happened, so I wasn't surprised to see my friends and family all in one piece. Adam had unveiled his newest trick, his MP bar expanding as he took in external sources of power to bolster his abilities, raising his stats as a matter of course. Raven was hard at work harrying half a dozen Grimm, flitting between them with portals and turning their power against one another. Gou continued to be monolithic, attacking anything he safely could and drawing the lion's share of attention to himself as he tanked blows; at the moment, he was focused primarily on aggravating and incising the Grimm to keep too many from attacking the others. And Autumn…was still in the sky, spreading her seeds.

I suppose she was buying time as well.

"You wound me," Gilgamesh answered dryly. At the same time, his fingers clinked gently against his armored hide. "In more ways than one. That technique you used…was it Ohr Ein Sof?"

"You know a great deal," I mused, thoughts still elsewhere. None of my friends were truly hurt yet, with Autumn being perfectly fine, Gou being in acceptable parameters for someone who could recover from being flayed alive in a few seconds, and Adam and Raven having only spent their Aura. Granted, that was a concern in and of itself; even without Sahasrara, their Auras were essentially their HP, given that the moment they ran out, they'd be in exceedingly dire straits. Should I use this opportunity to heal them, just in case? Doing so actively might be too noticeable, but if I excluded Autumn, I could use a full heal on each of them, just to top them off. That seemed a bit wasteful, since it was the type of thing I'd want to save for when one of us was really in trouble, but it was a possibility. A better one would be to use Caritas to just refuel them, but that bore the risk of being noticeable, too—more so than the healing, even, since it risked making them glow. Gilgamesh seemed content to talk for the moment, but it might be a bit much to assume he'd be willing to stand around with his thumb up his ass while I took care of my allies. He might attack me immediately or, worse, might strike at one of them instead.

No. I'd need to time this right.

"You play a dangerous game," He said. "When you come undone, there's nothing to guarantee you'll be able to put yourself back together again. It's an enviable weapon in some ways, but one that was lost for a reason—namely, most of the people who used it wound up killing themselves in the process."

"Mm," I hummed in acknowledgement, shrugging a shoulder again as I returned my attention to the conversation. "Such a kind warning. But then again, I'm not the only one who'd have to wait if I disappeared again, am I? Could it be that you're worried about me?"

Gilgamesh chuckled slightly at that.

"Perhaps," He acknowledged. "At the very least, it would be a shame—if you were to die, it would be a waste for you to go in such a way. I'd much rather tear you apart, I think."

"Aw," I said. "I'm touched, really."

"Perhaps so," He answered. "Have you not considered whether this battle is even necessary? If you have some idea of this place's value and our goals, why are you so certain we'd try to stop you?"

At that, I smiled and tilted my head.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd let me waltz right in if I asked nicely," I replied, only a touch dryly. "I'm just a touch less certain as to what you'd do to me afterwards, so I wanted to start with a trust-building exercise."

Gilgamesh tilted his head and cast a glance over the mess I'd made of…everything.

"A trust-building exercise, is it?" He mused. "I don't quite understand."

"It's simple, really," I told him. "I don't trust any of you fuckers. This entire place has screamed trap from the moment I heard of it and while it's a trap I have no choice but to spring, I think I'll feel better about it if I walk over your corpses to do it. Hence, building trust."

Gilgamesh laughed outright at that, though there was a different kind of edge to it now.

"I see," He said. "It's an interesting idea, I suppose—but do you honestly believe that's how this fight shall go?"

"I liked my odds enough to show up, didn't I?" I answered before slowly looking around. "And maybe it's just me, but you're place looks like its seen better days, Gil."

"…I suppose I didn't really expect you to make things easy," The Grimm replied, red eyes calm. "I'm glad. Let's both do our best to enjoy this brief game, then."

I whistled quietly and smiled.

"You want to challenge me to a game?" I asked him. "Do you know who I am?"

Gilgamesh stepped forward instead of answering, vanishing abruptly a moment later—and at the same time, I released my power.