Chapter 89: "Sins are sins..."
It took me a while to calm down, and when I did, I could still feel the joy and happiness coursing through my body.
It was somewhat subconscious, but it seemed like my resentment, so to speak, towards the moon had grown more than I had realized; after all, just a simple sight of a shattered moon was enough to make me laugh hysterically.
Funny... This wasn't even Terraria's moon; I knew that, but it didn't matter to me at that moment...
"Thank you..." I thanked the silver-eyed girl, a sincere gratitude. I don't think even she knows how much that sight cheered me up... Relieved me...
I would eventually see the moon myself in this month I'd spend in Remnant, but knowing that she cared enough was already enough for me...
Ruby, who had been silent until then, smiled cheerfully.
"It was nothing." She smiled carelessly.
I was the first to look away, glancing one last time at the night sky before turning to look at the distant forest.
"It's late, don't you have early classes tomorrow?" The stream clock read almost midnight. I knew it was the weekend, but whether it was Saturday or Sunday, I wasn't sure.
"We do, but it won't be the first time we've stayed up late." Yang shrugged, a visible curiosity shining in her amethyst-colored eyes. "Want to talk about it?" She asked.
"About what?..." It was obvious. "...The moon, my reaction?" She nodded. I understood her curiosity, from everyone, including (CHAT).
It wasn't a secret at this point that I harbored some sort of resentment towards the moon; to be fair, it was more like an open secret—I didn't comment on it, but anyone observant enough could notice.
The why was another story; none of them knew for sure, and if it were up to me, it would remain that way for as long as possible.
"It's nothing, just got happier than I expected." I changed the subject. "It was a surprise too, I can say it's the first time I've seen a shattered moon in real life." I had seen movies or anime with a broken moon, even two or more moons, but seeing it in reality was another story.
"For us too." Weiss spoke. "I mean, seeing a whole moon. For Remnant, the moon has always been like that, shattered, seeing one that wasn't was surprising." She explained.
The HOTD moon was the first moon I showed on the stream...
I chatted a few more minutes with the girls, Ruby leading much of the conversation when Houtengeki was mentioned.
"Can I try lifting it?" She asked eagerly.
"No." I replied without hesitation. "Crescent Rose weighs what? Twenty kilograms?..."
"Twenty-two kilograms and three hundred and four grams." Ruby spoke between my words.
"...Well, Houtengeki weighs twenty times more than that, you'll end up hurting yourself if you try to lift it." I didn't lose pace with the extremely specific number and continued.
I didn't want to be forced to spend part of a potion because she, or Yang, who I knew would try to lift the halberd like a bench press, strained a muscle or worse.
As much as I could feel Aura aiding in the body's basic regeneration, I didn't know how much, especially comparing my own regeneration to others', breaking an arm was at this point a mild injury like a scratch.
We continued talking until we reached their dormitory, the bunk beds still existed, I thought it had been a hallucination...
"Are you going to come in to sleep with us?~" Yang spoke provocatively.
The four, including Yang, blushed at the double entendre in the sentence, some more than others.
"You know I'm still streaming, right?" I asked looking at her. The way she blushed even more when she seemed to remember this fact made me laugh.
"I'll pass, still have some things to do." Ozpin had asked me to talk to him earlier. I also had to go talk to James about Tyrian. "Before I forget... Here, for when I turn off the stream." I handed the Radio Thing to Ruby.
I'll leave Lucy with her, the two had gotten along well.
"Yay! We have the radio, Lucy!" Ruby showed the Radio Thing to the axe.
("We have the radio, friend Ruby!") The axe didn't waste time responding.
"Should I be worried?" Yang asked with her cheeks still slightly red.
"Turn off the radio if Ruby doesn't want to go to sleep." I spoke calmly.
"That's not very reassuring..." Blake murmured. She had the best hearing, right?... Four ears and all... That was still kind of confusing to be honest.
I shook my head amusedly.
"Just don't throw it against the wall or something, and it should be fine." The durability of the Radio Thing was high, but it was better not to risk it.
After curiously receiving four goodnight hugs instead of just one, which surprised me a bit, the girls went into their dormitory.
"Goodnight..." I said one last time, a murmur, before continuing to walk.
I walked through the dark corridors of the school for a few minutes, listening to whispers in the distance, students' conversations, the sound of the wind drifting in the distance...
I walked until I returned to Beacon's rooftop, going to the edge to sit, watching the forest in the distance and the moon above, the night sky.
I must have been there for a few minutes, mostly in silence, just speaking a few words here and there with (CHAT), which included team RWBY that hadn't gone to sleep yet to have company.
After some time, the green dot I had been following on the minimap for a while approached, and the door leading to the rooftop opened behind me.
"You could've sent a message." Ozpin spoke as he walked, his steps echoing in the night's silence, along with the slight noise his cane made as it hit the ground.
"I'm pretty sure I did." I said without turning.
"Looking at a random camera and then pointing upwards isn't exactly a message." He said with a sigh, but I could hear the amusement in his voice.
"You still found me, didn't you?" I asked.
"Not because of the camera, but because Miss Winter was watching the stream and alerted us of your actions." He replied, sitting beside me on the rooftop.
"You still found me, didn't you?" I repeated the words before laughing for a moment. My mood was good, too bad I felt like it wouldn't last long...
"Touche." He laughed too and fell silent.
We must have stayed like that for a few minutes, just looking at the night sky and the forest in the distance, in silence, before Ozpin resumed the conversation.
"You truly are from another world, aren't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"I am..." My voice came out in a low tone. In every world, I would be someone from another world... "Have you watched some old videos from the stream?" I also already knew the answer to that question.
"Yes. It was enlightening in many ways." Ozpin spoke, slowly moving the cane that was in his lap with his fingers. "To say the least, a surprise, even for me..." He looked up, not directly at the moon, but at the stars dotting the sky. "Thank you..."
"For what?" I asked somewhat confused, but having an idea of why he was thanking me.
"A confirmation of an old question of mine..." As I thought...
"If we are alone?" I don't think there's a human being who hasn't thought about that at least once in their life. "You, in this case." I wasn't from Remnant.
"Yes..." He nodded. "As I said, it was quite a surprise."
"I imagine so. How was everyone's reaction?" I asked after a moment. Damn, I should've stayed there to watch the reaction, at least Qrow's, it must have been funny.
"Various degrees of shock, denial, and finally, acceptance." He chuckled. "Qrow was the first to leave the room, saying he needed a drink." Ozpin explained. "The second to leave after him was James, he gave the excuse that he was going to take Tyrian back to his cell, but I'm sure it was to sort out his own thoughts." He paused before continuing.
"Miss Winter followed James, she seemed the most shocked of all, I can't blame her, especially since she said she was talking to her (CHAT)." He shook his head with a amused smile.
"(CHAT)'s people are friendly, don't worry." I replied with a smile. A group of diverse and welcoming crazies, in a way.
I had seen her messages, replied to some, but mostly left it for (CHAT) to have fun replying. Funny how she became a member of the stream in just a few minutes without hesitation, it seems Weiss's family was really rich.
"I'll take your word for it." He nodded without doubt. "Glynda was the last to leave, and the most skeptical too, but when she was finally convinced, she took some headache medicine and went to bed, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find one or two empty wine bottles in her office trash tomorrow."
They were taking everything quite calmly, that was good.
"And you?" I asked. He hadn't said anything about his own reaction.
"I've seen many things in my life, as surprising as your situation may be, it's not something that will shake me easily." Was his response, and I believed him, he seemed calm... His eyes were old, they seemed to have seen a lot...
I was slightly tempted to say that this world was a TV show in my original world to see what his reaction would be, but I restrained myself, too many surprises in a single day couldn't be too good for the heart, and Ozpin seemed to be of a certain age already.
"Tell me, Ozpin, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked. I don't think he came here just to make small talk.
"Many things... But I don't think it's the right time for that conversation, as much as I've said I wasn't shaken, my thoughts are full at the moment," he explained, looking up.
"In fact, I came here not only because you were here, but because I have an old habit of looking at the stars when I want to organize my mind, something ancient, which I've carried since childhood..." The way his voice sounded as if it had been a long time ago than it seemed.
"I can't say I've acquired that same habit over the years, but I can understand." I've never been one to look at the night much, but I liked to be alone whenever I had a lot on my mind, so I could understand.
Minutes passed in silence as the moon rose higher in the sky, before I finally decided to end the stream, it was already late.
"Well, that's it for today, a busy day, isn't it?" I said to the camera. More than busy, tumultuous was the right word. "Go to sleep, regular programming tomorrow."
I let (CHAT) send their goodnight emotes before waving and turning off the stream.
"Curious, I thought you'd leave the stream on twenty-four hours, at least on normal days," Ozpin asked beside me, getting up when I did.
"I know my viewers, I know well that many would try to stay awake with me, no matter how many days the stream lasts, and that's not good for them." Whether I liked it or not, I influenced all my viewers.
Just as I had policed my swearing, reducing it, out loud at least, I knew that sleep deprivation would eventually mess with the minds and bodies of many people, even if mine didn't.
I could stay awake for weeks at this point, months probably, my body didn't tire and my mind grew stronger every day, but I knew others didn't have that disposition.
"Responsible of you, even if it's not your responsibility," Ozpin said with a certain respect in his voice.
"There are crazies in every world and somehow they seem to be drawn to the stream." Peculiarities were not lacking in (CHAT), especially in (CHAT - FATES). "Many of them have become my friends, I don't want them to sleep badly because of me if I can avoid it," I said amused.
Some I knew would try to stay awake with me, for one reason or another, were Ruby, Stark, Percy, Harry, Ainz, even though the latter didn't need to sleep and would watch me out of curiosity and boredom.
"Speaking of crazies, James told me that Tyrian woke up some time ago, but they couldn't get anything out of him," Ozpin informed me. "Thought you'd like to know."
"I figured it would be like that." Tyrian was the perfect mold of a psychopath, if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't, even if they tortured him...
"Take me to him, I think I can make him talk," I commented, starting to walk. Tyrian would talk, even if his body didn't want to talk...
"Any magic of yours?" Ozpin asked, guiding the way. Qrow must have informed him of our brief conversation.
"Something like that, still in testing... But it should work," I replied.
... His spirit would speak...
It took a few minutes to reach the cell where Tyrian was, the Bull-Head trip to the control ship was smooth, the landing too.
"You'll be mine." I tapped the side of the snow when we landed, making Ozpin chuckle amusedly.
We followed the soldier who guided us into the ship in silence with the sound of Ozpin and the soldier's footsteps, along with the rhythmic tapping of Ozpin's cane tip being the only sounds in the environment.
I didn't even need to look at the minimap to know that we were being escorted by more than just this one soldier, the group in the air vents were skilled, barely making any noise, but that wasn't enough for my current senses.
We walked to a room that had a green and a red dot inside. When the soldier opened the door after a voice shouted permission from inside, I had confirmation that the dots were respectively James and Tyrian.
The latter didn't seem too happy to see me.
"FALSE PROPHET! I WILL TEAR YOUR FLESH FOR THE GODDESS YOU INSIGNIFICANT!" He shouted and would continue to shout before James turned off the microphone that was on the other side of the glass he was tied to.
"False prophet?" I asked. Was it because of the Bone Helm?
"The aura that your bone mask emitted seems to have confused him," James rubbed his fingers on his eyes. "I'm not in the right mind to deal with a lunatic of this level..." He looked tired.
"Received some shocking information?" I didn't hide the amusement in my voice, the dry look James gave me was all the answer I needed.
I ignored his look and turned to look at Tyrian, who had been staring at me until now.
"Tell me, James, are the six up there your men, or spies?" I asked just in case, they were yellow on the minimap, so I wasn't sure.
The noise that came from the ceiling after my question sounded like a head hitting metal, but I could be wrong too.
Ozpin snorted at my words, while James sighed in an even more tired manner and looked up.
"Double training for you next month!" He shouted, before turning to me. "Yes, they're my men," he replied.
"Well, just to make sure." I shrugged. They were close enough that they wouldn't be able to escape if they were spies anyway.
I didn't ask where Winter was; I could see the green dot representing her on the other side of the ship, probably in her room.
"He hasn't said anything since you called me?" Ozpin took control of the conversation and asked James.
"Nothing but taunts and curses. I don't think I'll ever meet a living being, be it human, faunus, or animal, more disturbed in my whole life than him," James replied.
That might be true for him, but I felt it wouldn't be the case for me, unfortunately...
"That goddess he keeps shouting about, do you guys know who she is?" I asked, tapping my finger on the glass that separated the room as if Tyrian were a goldfish in an aquarium.
James opened his mouth to respond before Ozpin interrupted him, speaking in his place.
"We have a suspicion of who she might be, but nothing confirmed," he looked at me, then up, where I had pointed out James's six men.
I nodded, indicating that I understood. I'll ask him later, that is, if Tyrian doesn't tell me himself.
"Well, I'll take our friend here for a walk then." I waved for James to open the door separating the room. "A magician never reveals his tricks and all that." I knew they would understand.
James frowned, probably considering denying, but nodded and opened the door, Ozpin didn't react, just watched from the side.
The moment the door was opened, Tyrian's mouth did the same, but before he could probably curse my soul and threaten to tear me apart, I gagged him using the VoidBag.
"Be back in a few hours." I waved, tossing the chained and struggling body over my shoulder.
If everything went right, with information and a corpse... If everything went wrong, just with a corpse...
[...]
POV: Third person.
"Are you sure this is wise?" James asked Ozpin after a few minutes had passed, the two now inside James's office.
The human at this moment was descending to the Emerald Forest using a Bull-Head driven by a soldier. As for the Ace Ops who were observing earlier, they were dismissed with a wave from James.
"That's a vague question, about what?" Ozpin asked back. "Letting Devas take Tyrian? Or leaving Devas unsupervised?" He inquired.
"The latter," James grunted. "I don't have enough mercy in me to stop whatever he's going to do with Tyrian, but I still think he should be watched."
All day, the human had been accompanied by someone, be it Qrow and team RWBY, or even Ozpin, but at this moment, the human was unsupervised.
"I'll send a spy drone to see what he's going to do." James said, grabbing a Scroll from the first drawer of his desk. As much as he believed in the human, after all the evidence, the Streamer still wasn't someone to fully trust, at least for Ironwood.
"Don't do that." It wasn't advice, it was an order, Ozpin's steel voice confirmed it. "We saw in the videos that he has that map in his vision; he found your best men in seconds."
"The map doesn't show objects, only living beings," James retorted.
"Do you want to bet on that and annoy someone who almost screamed that he wanted to be our ally?" Ozpin sighed. "James, paranoia is good, it keeps you alive, but too much paranoia will end up pushing everyone away from you, maybe even killing you." Ozpin advised, his lived years shining in that moment.
James hesitated before dropping the Scroll he had in his hands and slumping into the chair behind him.
"An alien, Ozpin..." James spoke after a few seconds of silence.
"He's human, you know that." To Ozpin, as much as the human had come from another world, universe perhaps, he wasn't sure, he was still human.
"Doesn't change the fact that he's not from Remnant... Damn, I think finding out magic was real was less surprising." James scratched his nose with his prosthetic arm. "An alien with magic..."
"Do you have any idea what he's going to do?" James asked after a while.
"No, but I don't think it'll be torture or anything like that, if that's your concern. Devas didn't seem like the type." Ozpin replied calmly. "And if it's some kind of mind-reading spell, it must be something lengthy, since he didn't want both of us to see the process." He reassured him.
While the headmaster and the general conversed, the human had finally landed in the Emerald Forest, the Bull-Head that brought him flying away as he watched from the ground.
"I still think the name Bull-Head is kind of crap, but whatever," the human commented to Tyrian on his right shoulder, who grunted and struggled before being thrown to the ground.
"You know, I spent the whole day thinking about what I was going to do with you," the human began, pulling a chair out of the Voidbag and sitting down on it. "Especially after unlocking my Aura and seeing that one of my racial traits took up residence there," he monologued, speaking to himself since Tyrian couldn't respond.
Tyrian took advantage of the monologue to try to escape, attempting to break the chains that bound his limbs, but to no avail.
Not only were the chains sturdy, but he was also without Aura due to the injuries his body had suffered; the little he had recovered was destroyed by James as standard procedure for highly dangerous prisoners.
It would be a miracle if he could even crack one of the chains around his body.
"What are you going to do then? Torture me?" Tyrian spoke as the gag in his mouth disappeared. "How cute, I even got a little scared," the faun teased, laughing.
Pain was the last thing Tyrian feared; it even pleased him, even if he was the one suffering.
"No, I don't like torture, don't worry," the human looked down at the faun on the ground and reassured him.
Tyrian didn't believe his words; he had said them himself many times to his victims before, seeing the hope disappear from their eyes when he pulled out a tool always delighted him.
As much as to him, the human in front of him was a false prophet, someone who copied the aura of his Goddess and his Grimms, still, he was someone who exuded so much malice that it almost made him blaspheme against his Goddess, someone like that couldn't be good.
Tyrian was already preparing the jokes he would tell when the human started torturing him when he noticed the shadows around them moving strangely, the same happening with the shadow of the human that seemed to sway with the moonlight, even though he was standing still.
"What?" Tyrian murmured. Was this the human's semblance?
"Tell me, Tyrian, I'll give you a chance. Tell me about this… Queen of the Grimms, and I'll just rip your head off," the human interrupted the faun's thoughts with his words.
Tyrian looked at him for a moment, as if thinking, 'Is he really serious?' before realizing that yes, the human was serious, and began to laugh.
"And I thought that girl with delusions of grandeur was deluded, but I see there will always be someone dumber in the world," he spat the words along with saliva in the direction of the human.
"Girl with delusions of grandeur?" the human murmured, storing that information for later before sighing and standing up. "Well, don't say I didn't give you a chance later… But I'm glad you refused…" He went to Tyrian and grabbed the chain that held him before starting to walk, dragging the faun deeper into the forest.
Although he was being dragged on rough ground without Aura to protect his body, Tyrian wasn't really being harmed, since the chain itself that held him also protected him from the sharp stones and roots on the forest floor.
The human dragged the faun for a few minutes, walking slowly and without haste for what he was planning to do.
"Ruby is someone important to me, you know that?" the human commented, taking one step at a time, looking ahead as he spoke.
"Not that it matters much at this moment, but I wanted you to know that everything that is going to happen from now on, it's because of this… Goddess of yours, as you say, gave you this mission," the human explained calmly, his voice strangely devoid of emotion, seeming to have an extra echo that made Tyrian's head ache when he listened.
It was as if the human's voice had a whisper behind it, as if it were a voice speaking about smaller voices, a symphony of murmurs and indistinguishable whispers.
A shiver ran down Tyrian's spine, followed by a strange feeling he didn't remember ever feeling before in his entire life, which deepened more and more as the shadows around seemed to grow darker and closer and closer…
The sound around also began to diminish… The faint noise of the stream in the distance slowly disappeared, along with the sounds of the insects that one by one fell silent… Not even the wind rustling the leaves seemed to produce a single noise…
It was as if the moonlight couldn't illuminate this part of the forest…
It was as if the sound had disappeared…
The human continued dragging the faun, who looked around not understanding what was happening…
Tyrian then realized that the only sounds were the chains being dragged on the ground, clanking against each other, and the whispers, indecipherable murmurs that seemed to come from everywhere…
From within the treetops, from beneath the rocks on the ground, behind every bush, every trunk… The voices seemed to echo throughout the dark Emerald Forest…
After an indeterminate amount of time for Tyrian, who was looking around for what, or who, was making these whispers, these voices, the human stopped walking.
Nothing but trees surrounded them for miles and miles; not even a soul, whether human or faun, existed within the range of the Minimap and beyond.
"I think this is far enough," the human said to himself, pulling Tyrian into the center of the clearing they were in.
The clearing was medium-sized, with only a few irregular meters in length in all directions, surrounded by trees and more trees that together formed a black curtain that seemed to devour all light, darkening everything within their canopies.
Nothing but the clearing seemed to be illuminated by the moonlight, and even that light seemed to be slowly fading as the shadows crept out of the forest slowly...
Tyrian realized the moment he was thrown into the center of the clearing that his heart was racing, as fast as if he were in the middle of a hunt, behind his delicious prey at the behest of his Goddess... But his feelings didn't mirror those moments...
It was as if his instincts were heightened for a different reason... He could feel every single blade of grass touching his skin, hear every whisper... With each movement the human made, his eyes instinctively turned to see what he was doing, as if taking him out of his sight were more than a mistake...
What is this? Tyrian wondered. Why was his body acting like this? Was it because of the blood loss? No, he had lost more before and none of this had happened.
Because of the headache? The whispers?... Perhaps. The faun thought. Those voices... What were they?... Was this the human's Semblance?...
"No, this isn't my Semblance," the human replied, as if he were reading his thoughts. "I'm not reading your thoughts either, Tyrian... You're muttering the words..." The human explained, pausing in his words deliberately slowly.
"The voices are unpleasant, aren't they?" the human approached slowly, Tyrian watched every move, every step, every ripple of the human's muscles attentively, his heightened senses, his vision...
Tyrian widened his eyes when he realized... Everything was dark... It wasn't supposed to be dark... He was a faun, his night vision was excellent, he was supposed to see the night as if it were day!
"Are your thoughts confused?..." The human spoke in a low tone. "Forgot you could see in the dark?..." He came even closer. "Forgot your own kind?... Madness, isn't it?..." He laughed in a low, hoarse tone, a sound that seemed to intensify the whispers and voices...
"You..." Tyrian struggled to speak the word, his throat was dry, his vocal cords felt more like sandpaper than anything else...
"Me?..." The human took another step. When had he put on that deer mask?... "What about me, Tyrian?..." Another step... No...
"Don't come any closer." His voice was meant to be a shout, a threat, but it sounded more like a weak, fragile plea, just as his prey always did when he played with them... And just as he ignored them, the human ignored him... Moving closer one step at a time...
Tyrian jerked his head quickly when he felt a hand grip his shoulder... A dark hand... He recognized that hand, it was one of those hands the human controlled when he saved the silver-eyed girl and the blonde fool from his clutches...
When his other shoulder was gripped by another hand, Tyrian's head turned once again, making his neck ache with the speed... And then another hand appeared, this time holding his right arm... When had the chains disappeared?...
This was the moment to rise, to fight... To flee, a small voice whispered in the back of Tyrian's head, swallowed by the endless whispers, muffled and drowned by the sea of voices echoing from all sides...
Tyrian didn't move as a fourth hand held his left arm, his body seemed not to listen... He didn't even react when two more hands held his legs, pinning him to the ground...
When the seventh hand held his head in place, making him look up, at the full moon, bright and round in the sky, he tried to speak... Hindered when an eighth and final hand covered his mouth...
"You know... Do me a favor..." The human's voice echoed from all sides, even though he was next to Tyrian, looking down at him. "... If what I'm about to do hurts... Scream, I won't stop, but I'll know what to improve next time I do it..." The voice echoed, increasing the shiver Tyrian felt down his spine.
Tyrian's widened eyes glanced at the holes in the human's mask, two terror-filled eyes staring at two emotionless white spheres... Then the human stooped down, placing a hand on his face, and everything went dark...
Tyrian didn't remember screaming, but his throat ached as if he had; he didn't remember moving, but he woke up on a beach alone...
"What?..." The faun looked around. This... Was this real?
Tyrian almost instantly noticed his tail swinging behind him, a tail he had lamented for a few moments had been cut... What?
"Was all that some kind of... Hallucination?" Had he eaten something poisoned without realizing it? Some kind of medicine Hazel had tested on him without him noticing?
"No, Tyrian, what happened wasn't a hallucination..." A childlike voice echoed behind Tyrian.
A shiver ran down Tyrian's spine again when he heard the voice; when he was about to turn to fight, he was stopped, again by the eight hands holding his body tightly.
"You would attack a child?... I should have expected as much..." The voice drew closer, the owner walking deliberately slowly to his front... Tyrian recognized him.
Though he was much younger, in a body of seven, maybe eight years, or more, Tyrian couldn't discern children's ages, the human still had the same features... Still wore the same deer mask...
Two white holes stared at the faun trapped by the black hands, below him, a playful smile on the human child's face.
"It took a few tries, but it seems possible..." The human murmured without removing the smile from his face. "Come, let's take a walk." The human inhabiting his child self spoke, turning around and starting to walk.
Tyrian felt the hands holding him lift him off the ground, and drag him through the air behind, following the human like eight puppies vying for their owner's attention.
Tyrian tried to struggle, to tear the hands that held him, but nothing worked...
Even when he instinctively used his tail that had been ripped off this morning, the most he managed was to make the hand covering his mouth move to grip the tail tightly, preventing it from moving.
"Don't struggle, I don't want to accidentally drop you in the sea." The childlike voice sounded again in front of him. Drop in the sea?
Tyrian stopped moving, looking around, it was then that he realized he was no longer on the beach, but rather on top of a bridge connecting the beach to somewhere else, spanning over the ocean.
"Where are we?..." Tyrian managed to say with a hoarse voice, ignoring the pain in his throat. "What the hell did you do... Where have you brought me!" The faun shouted, before coughing, saliva and blood mixing every time air was expelled from his lungs.
"Don't bleed on my bridge, it was a hell of a job to build it." The human child looked at the blood with a disgusted look before shaking his head and turning away, ignoring the faun's question.
Tyrian didn't ask any more questions, as much as he wanted to, he knew the human wouldn't answer; it would only make his throat bleed more.
The human child and the scorpion faun walked for some time on the bridge, the former taking short steps with his short legs, while the latter floated, dragged by black hands that swayed as if they weren't really real...
Tyrian noticed that the sea around them began to change after a while, the clear waters becoming increasingly darker, in a sickly purple hue, before turning into a thick sludge as the two approached what seemed to be an island on the other side of the bridge.
The ground was purple, the earth seeming dry and wet at the same time, as if poisoned, rotten; the same happened with the thick roots that seemed like veins running through the ground, coming from trees so dry they seemed dead, but were alive.
The whole island was like a rotten and poisoned swamp, with thorny shrubs next to small puddles as black as tar that pulsed, releasing bubbles that smelled so horrible Tyrian's nose wrinkled even from a distance.
It was like a distorted version of the Grimm Lands, Tyrian realized, the environment as malicious as it, but seemingly serving the human child in front of him as the Grimm Lands served his Goddess.
"It took me some time to separate this thing from the main island, but it was worth it... I don't think I'll ever get used to this smell..." The human child murmured, taking short steps through the swamp.
With each step the human child took, the roots on the ground intertwined, one by one, until they formed a wooden path for him to walk on smoothly, it was as if the whole place wanted to serve him with its best.
It didn't take long for the human child to stop his steps, reaching where he wanted to go, in front of what seemed to be a huge lake of black mud that bubbled as if boiling, releasing bubbles that created waves in the thick liquid.
"A Grimm Pool?!" Tyrian ignored the pain and blood as he shouted. What was this doing here? How was it here?!
That question, the human child answered.
"I don't know what a Grimm Pool is, but this isn't one," the human child replied. "It's just my nightmare energy in its most... Primitive form, so to speak." Nightmare energy? What... What was that?
Tyrian received no answer to his question before being lifted even higher into the air, just above the large pool of black mud.
"Last chance, something you shouldn't have, speak and I'll kill you. Don't speak and you'll have a nice dive." The human child's voice echoed, the entire island rejoicing at his words.
"You... Think that scares me?" Tyrian spat the words with blood dripping into the mud below and disappearing. "I will never betray my Goddess, throw me, I'll just become a Grimm and continue serving." The madness in his voice was not like his usual madness... It was darker... Truly insane...
The human child neither smiled nor showed emotion, as if waiting for the faun's response, and murmured, more to themselves than for Tyrian to hear.
"Sins are sins... I'll accept mine... No matter what they are..." The human child's voice was serene... Calm...
Tyrian didn't have time to speak when the hands holding him in the air opened, letting him fall into the mud lake.
Tyrian didn't have time to react when he felt his body and perhaps something more burn and corrode upon falling into the mud.
Tyrian didn't have time to struggle when dozens of hands as black as pitch emerged from the mud and dragged him down.
The human child looked at the spot where the faun's body had been swallowed by the mud without showing emotion.
"Sins are sins..." He murmured.
... Not even reacting when a clearly human, or in this case, faun hand, appeared in that same spot...
The black hand dragged itself out of the mud lake, the body to which it belonged rising slowly... Tyrian... But the human child knew it wasn't him anymore.
Both the skin and clothes of the ex-faun were an unnatural black color, like the Grimm he had killed that morning... Like the hallucinations that plagued WinterHord...
His eyes were of a ghostly white hue, like two soulless, empty voids, concealed much like his face, behind a mask crafted from bones, resembling that of the Grimms... Identical to the one the human child wore... A deer mask...
As the former faunus and the human child locked eyes, for a moment Tyrian's eyes, his irises, gleamed in a sickly purple hue... His Semblance...
The human child looked at the ex-faun with a certain regret before his voice sounded throughout the island.
"Tell me, Tyrian... What do you know about the Queen of the Grimm... What's her name?" The human child asked...
"Salem, my master, her name is Salem..." Tyrian didn't hesitate for even a moment.
... And like a loyal servant, Tyrian replied...
The human opened his eyes after having all the answers and information he wanted from Tyrian, 'waking up' again in the Emerald Forest, with his hand above the faun's body, who had wide and empty eyes, even though his chest moved.
"Perhaps torturing him would have been more humane than this..." The human murmured.
Tyrian's mind was dead, ripped away... Even though his body wasn't, his consciousness taken and twisted by madness, ready to serve as a servant... Even part of his soul torn away... A small part, but still, a part of his soul...
Even if reincarnation existed in this world beyond Ozpin's, which Tyrian had told the human about, the next life of the faun could not truly be counted as a next life, but as a restart...
Everything that made this soul 'Tyrian' had been taken, his memories, emotions, thoughts... Even his Semblance... Tyrian, for all intents and purposes, had been forcibly purged from Remnant... Trapped in forced servitude, a punishment for all the crimes he committed...
"Sins are sins..." The human murmured one last time... "I'll carry yours too..." It was the least he could do after everything...
The human tore off the head of Tyrian's vegetative state body with a simple swing of his halberd and stowed them both inside the VoidBag before the head even rolled, and then began walking back to Beacon...
Upon a shattered moon... The human walked... It was lucky that there were no Grimm nearby... Lucky for them...
... With dozens of red eyes in his shadow, looking in all directions, ready to defend their master if anything was foolish enough to attack.
[...]---[...]
I'll be brief here, as it's 5 in the morning and I have to wake up early... My brain is melting...
Well, I liked how this chapter turned out, the interactions between Devas and Ozpin, I think I managed to convey what I wanted to, even with Ironwood and his suspicion.
As for Tyrian... Well, nightmare energy affects the mind... Why not try to use it to pull someone else's mind, with no defense against such an attack, into your own mind?...
Devas is accompanied now... His shadow has been moving in the last few chapters... Hasn't it moved?...
Well, I'll explain why everything happened in the next chapter and how Devas did what he did, meanwhile, I'll leave it at that...
As always, good night to everyone and happy reading!
PS: Chapter with nearly 7k words for you all!
PSS: I didn't miss in the description when Tyrian saw the moon...
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