5,175Violent winds whipped across Winter's face as she stared down from a bullhead quickly rising up from the landing platform where Grimm besieged the docking building at all sides.
Taking aim with a rifle, she conjured a glyph to steady her hands due to wounds all over her body, before firing and sniping down Nevermores that were flocking nearby.
Steel-like feathers fell from dissipating black bodies, but Winter paid them no mind even as those very same feathers mottled the ground with holes.
The acrid scent of burning asphalt and charred rubber wafted up high into the air, as Winter stared at a city in ruins. Signs and banners that were marked for celebration and happiness were torn to pieces. The banners that hailed the start of the present year's Vytal festival would ultimately become the benchmark in history where an entire kingdom fell in less than a single day.
Winter's eyes hardened as she watched a Grimm in the form of a black shadow swallowing everything in its wake. T-That damn thing.
Jaw clenching, Winter recalled the moment the floating Vytal Festival arena exploded. She'd been launched far from the group of academy students and was instead closer to civilians. Out on patrol during the finals, she and her group had spread out to provide security, but that did little good when the entire venue exploded into pieces.
As Winter had plummeted from the sky and Grimm utterly flocked into Vale, she witnessed first-hand how that single Grimm shadow swallowed civilian after civilian.
It was maddening.
She'd tried to intervene and fire at it, but as if fighting an actual shadow, it seemed to dematerialize and allow her attacks to just phase through.
Of the people of Vale that managed to escape on emergency bullheads, it accounted for only ten percent of Vale's population.
The death toll was staggering.
If not for the sudden arrival of the Huntsman of Red, and whatever magic he pulled to isolate the Grimm, no one would have been able to escape.
Winter was fortunate in the regard that she was left outside the boundary of the magic the Huntsman of Red had utilized. While the Huntsman of Red and the others engaged Salem and her forces within a world of blades, Winter had remained in Vale.
She'd been helping evacuate civilians ever since.
The last of the remaining civilians had departed, and her duty as a Huntress was fulfilled, but that didn't stop the overwhelming feeling of loss and panic welling up from within her.
Winter could not find Weiss or any of the other Beacon Academy Students. It was likely that they too were caught up in the shadow war and trapped in battle against Salem.
A brief window of relief had appeared when civilians started escaping back into Vale through what appeared to be cracks in the air, but it was short lived.
None of the people Winter wished to see had yet to return safely.
Puring her lips, Winter remained stubborn while standing at the side of an open bullhead.
"Stop looking, and close the hatch."
A pilot's voice echoed from an intercom at the bullhead loading bay.
"..." Winter knit her brows, still staring down as Vale was overrun by Grimm.
"We need to pressurize the cabin. There are civilians captain," the pilot said.
"…Just a bit longer."
"Captain."
"…"
"We'll raise altitude in another minute. There's no more time for delays. Look to the horizon."
Winter raised her gaze and shuddered.
Over the horizon, more and more Grimm were swarming into Vale. The elder Grimm, the oldest of them all were also on the move. Massive Goliaths were marching in tandem, their weight shaking the earth and breaking through everything before them.
"We wait for the General," Winter insisted with clenched fists.
"Understood." The intercom went silent.
Winter took a shuddering breath. There was still time. There had to be.
Eyes growing bloodshot, Winter ignored her wounds and continued to survey the area beneath her for any signs of her superior and younger sister. Her focus was on the spot the Huntsman of Red had initially engaged the enemy with Ozpin and the others nearby. Her hope was that they'd appear in the same place with the Huntsman of Red after achieving victory against Salem. With them would be Weiss and any other surviving huntsmen.
That was the only outcome Winter could accept.
In the end, her persistence bore fruit because Ozpin and the others did appear along with Weiss, a whole bunch of Academy students, and many other individuals, prompting Winter into action.
"Descend! I'll clear the area!" Winter roared, blood trickling from a wound over her temples.
Nevertheless, Winter dashed towards a mounted artillery unit on the bullhead and began firing around a circular perimeter.
"Hurry!" Winter beckoned the pilot.
As the bullhead drew near, Winter fully opened the bay door and gestured for everyone to board. Relief flooded through Winter's face when she noticed Weiss safe behind the Arc boy's barrier, but that soon turned to confusion when she noted the expression on Weiss's face- no; the expression on everyone's faces.
Did Salem win?
"General-" Winter tried to call out to James, but Ironwood shook his head.
No one appeared to be in any mood to talk.
Tai carried an unconscious Yang and Summer in his arms, while Qrow pulled a despondent Ruby beside him.
Ozpin appeared the most aged, his eyes reflecting a different kind of storm as whispers surrounded him and the 'confused' woman he kept within arm's reach.
Winter opened and closed her mouth, choosing not to ask. Hell, she didn't even question it when Neo and Roman boarded in their guise as Rose mercenaries.
No one talked. No one so much as dared take too deep a breath.
As the Bullhead ascended and gradually raised its altitude over Vale, all eyes were watching as the city's buildings were toppled by Grimm.
Vale as they had all known it was gone, trampled underfoot and besieged.
It was almost like the Grimm were flocking.
From the corner of Winter's eyes, she stared at a remnant of Vale where buildings had fallen over and left the area bare to reveal a hill.
On that hill, faint wisps of golden motes gently rose from the air, acting as a contrast to the encroaching shadows of the Grimm.
And there, a sword pierced through his chest and pinned to the ground in countless magic chains, was the Huntsman of Red.
Indeed.
All eyes were on that man as the bullhead departed the fallen kingdom of Vale.
Whether they stared out of respect, regret, or even silent admiration, intuitively, they all understood.
So long as that light remained uncorrupted, there would be hope, because a hero was still fighting.
The bullhead ascended to its highest altitude before speeding off.
Winter had intended to direct the pilot to return to Atlas, but plans changed when James with Ozpin's cooperation ordered the pilot to stop over Beacon Academy.
The Rose Mercenary, Archer, had fallen in Vale.
But he had supposedly left a will or a contingency in Beacon.
Beacon Academy was barren. Its halls were empty, its classrooms bereft of any presence. In wake of the Vytal Festival, participating students and classmates alike were given holiday leave to partake in the festivity.
The Grimm were attracted to negativity. Therefore, it was inevitable that public events carried just as much importance as training the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Beacon's current vacancy was to be expected, but in wake of Vale's fall, the silence and the echo of steps walking down the halls were eerie.
Of those that had participated in the Vytal festival from across Remnant, few and far between survived.
Among the survivors, Ruby was mute. Her steps were only guided forward by the thought that Archer had left something behind for them.
"Ruby-"
Ruby glanced up at her uncle Qrow with watery eyes before clenching her fist and walking off.
She knew that Qrow wanted to comfort her, but any words he or anyone could say now wouldn't help. Rather, it was like rubbing salt on a wound. She watched as they stood aside and let Shirou act on his own.
What was the worst was that Ruby couldn't bring herself to blame them. She knew the kind of person Shirou was and that was the reason she ended up directing the anger at herself.
Why couldn't she have been better? More mature?
Shirou, he did so much for her, but what had she ever done for him?
Ruby looked around, her gaze focusing on Summer's healed form before she took a shuddering breath.
As Shirou's Master, she hadn't been able to do anything.
On her hand, a single Command Spell was left, but she refused to look at it. No, she refused to even entertain the notion.
Ruby could see it on the faces of the adults: The weariness from what was evidently a pyric victory.
Salem had been defeated in a sense, but the cost was a pill difficult to swallow. Worse yet, if the pill was left to fester, then it would become a far greater threat than Salem had ever been.
Hunching her shoulders, Ruby kept to herself, but inadvertently caught a glimpse of the Command Seal on her hand.
If the others ever found out what this Command Spell could do, perhaps the expressions on their faces wouldn't appear so shadowed?
A command that must be obeyed. The simpler the command, the stronger the urge to follow through.
Shaking her head harshly, Ruby digressed. However, Ruby did not know that she wasn't the only one privy to the nature of the remaining Command Seal on her hand.
Summer had practically been with Shirou and Ruby from the start. She too knew the power of the Seal.
And of course, Shirou too understood.
Ruby couldn't even rule out that Shirou had already considered this aspect from the moment he chose to act out. That at the very least, if they were on the verge of failure, a failsafe that could kill him existed.
Ruby forced down the whimper threatening to escape her lips, but the anxiousness of it all caused her stomach to hurt-
"YOU FUCKER! M-MURDERER!"
Ruby startled as did many others.
Yang had woken from unconsciousness.
A commotion echoed from behind Ruby, drawing many eyes to Tai who struggled to hold an infuriated Yang back. Storms of lightning and flame forced everyone in the vicinity to retreat several paces, as Yang's blond hair was consumed in a blood-red crimson.
Yang was gritting her teeth so hard that the grinding of her molars was audible. Blood seeped from clenched fists, and the fierceness in her pupils was further accentuated by the way they started glowing.
In contrast, Tai's firm grip around Yang's arm appeared feeble.
If not for Ozpin intervening by containing Yang in a field of green Aura and magic, she would have long since pounced.
"Yang-" Blake tried to speak, but there was no placating the girl as tears welled down Yang's face.
"You had no right to decide!" Yang sobbed, falling to her knees. "No Right!" she wept.
Turning to the recipient of Yang's screams, Ironwood remained stone-faced as Winter straightened her shoulders and prepared to defend James in case Yang broke free.
"Y-You killed him." Yang glared. "Was he worth less than my mom? Was that it?! He did it for all of us. For you! And you stab him in the back?! He didn't deserve that. HE DIDN'T!"
The context was lost to many, but those that did know were left inwardly reeling. Afterall, it was true in a sense. They had hesitated when Summer was the one succumbing to the Grimm's control, but when Archer had saved Summer and had subject himself to the same blackening, he was shot dead.
Ironwood did not apologize. He too had been conflicted, but it didn't change the decision he had made. It was one thing for Summer to succumb to blackening, but if Archer, a man directly related to the Huntsman of Red was blackened, the damage would have been far too severe.
The current results proved it. The Grimm shadow had only taken Archer's dead body as a host, but even then, it had the ability to reach Salem. What more could it have done if Archer wasn't already dead?
But could James hope to reason with Yang, now?
The girl looked ready to tear him limb from limb in her grief. He wouldn't be surprised if she was willing to pay any price to get him in a room alone with her for even a minute.
Those that knew Yang were all giving her odd looks, but that soon turned to understanding as they looked at what was left of team CRDL.
Cardin was consumed by the Grimm shadow after helping Ruby defeat Cinder. There wasn't even a body left behind.
It was clear that Yang had lost someone she held dear in the attack, and that much was understandable. However, Emerald and Vernal started frowning from then on as they noticed Archer's absence. Gears started turning in their heads, but time moved on.
James stared silently at Yang as she fumed and roared profanity at him, causing Winter to grimace.
Regardless, James turned his back and kept moving forward.
"You're just walking away! Get back here! You think I'll let this go?! Heartless Bastard!" Yang's veins popped over her temples. If not for the fact that it was her own father and Ozpin holding her back, she'd have already exploded.
Staring blankly at the unfolding scene, Ruby swallowed down the warble in her throat. It was yet another thing that had changed in the timeline she'd read. But now, the discrepancy hardly caused her to blink.
The only reason Ruby and the others were allowed to go with the adults into Archer's study was because the Huntsman of Red had hinted at the next generation.
Indeed.
What the group found upon arriving at the old combat classroom Archer had taken over after Glynda had died was nothing short of breathtaking.
Inside was a collection of all the magic artifacts Archer had gathered and revealed in his special class. Moreover, each one appeared to be intended for specific people.
Even Raven Branwen got her wish as she stared at the red spear she'd coveted from the very beginning.
Archer, that guy, he had not spared a single expense as if fully prepared to die.
To Ector, a spear that represented the burning heavens.
To Pyrrha, a shield meant to act as a bulwark.
To Yang, to Emerald, to Blake, down to even Ruby, everyone was accounted for.
To Ironwood, Ozpin, and the other adults that bore witness, everything left in this room was a specialized war arsenal.
Still, this room filled with countless weapons of legend and magic, revealed much more about Archer as a person than anything else ever would. For all the splendor, power, and meaning that these weapons represented of other heroes that had fallen in their line of duty, none of it represented Archer himself.
But Ruby knew it now, just as many others who'd experienced it for themselves would.
Overwhelming selflessness and an unwavering resolve to carry out what needed to be done without hesitation.
To move forward despite knowing that death may lay at the end of the path, was not a choice done easily.
Rather, the question was, what had it all been for?
The answer was simple as Ruby stared at the magic artifacts meticulously left behind for each individual. There were even brief descriptions and tips on how to wield each, revealing that he'd thought and matched an artifact suitable to each person.
To put a cause beyond one man's desires.
To put others before one's self.
What Archer had hoped to show was nothing less than his own belief.
To him, that's what it meant to be a hero.
As one flame turns into embers billowing in the wind, it was the belief that those embers would one day too become their own flame.
It wasn't fair.
Ruby fell to her knees and wept as the reality of what had all happened finally caught up with her in its entirety. She had to save him. She just had to no matter what anyone else said.
To her who felt as if she'd just lost the world...
I-It just wasn't fair.
Thanks for reading!
Free web novel :[The Apostate in Grim Fantasy] (For those that asked, the web novel is available on webnovel and the patron main page, leave a review if you'd like! New goal is 20 reviews)
Next update: TBA
P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious
Book links:
Fatedlegacydark
New Book: Out on Amazon (Remove dash on link)
Survivor's Log Reflection: Amazon.c-om/dp/B08VDDGN7Z?