Chapter 97: Frozen Chest.
Apologies for the brief delay; it's Mother's Day and all. Speaking of which, happy Mother's Day!
Well, as always, if anyone wants to support me or just read 3/7 chapters ahead of my two stories, that's possible on my (P)(A)(T); if not, I still appreciate you reading my two stories!
Having said that, good night everyone and happy reading!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
[...]---[...]
"Here are two hundred and twenty-four pages from yesterday's class." I placed the papers on Glynda's desk, who looked surprised.
"Two hundred pages?" She flipped through the papers, seeing both sides covered in words. Jarvis took no more than five minutes to scan everything into (CHAT), maybe a little longer to convert it into Remnant language, but nothing more than that.
"Eight from each team, two per person. I've added some notes on the teams and individuals I found interesting." I pointed to the eye mark on the paper.
At first, I thought of putting a 'D' for Devas, but ended up drawing a small eye instead. These things seemed to follow me these days, me needing to effectively contain the Nightmares so no one found out I had an army in my shadow.
"What teams? Team RWBY is one of them, I imagine, and Team JNPR as well?" The third person in the room asked. Ozpin.
"Shouldn't you be in your office?" I raised an eyebrow. "As for the teams, it's those two you mentioned, but also Team CFVY and SSSN."
Team CDRL, Cardin's team, would have gotten a mark too. They were above average and I saw good potential in them, but, as I quickly found out they were kind of cowardly and racist, I thought it best not to. Not worth the effort.
"Miss Adel's team and Haven's." Ozpin ignored my question and hummed to himself. "I can see why they caught your attention. But still, two hundred pages. Did you sleep last night?"
"About three hours." Normal for me, actually, but it seemed to surprise Glynda and, to a much lesser extent, Ozpin. "I asked one of my viewers for help organizing everything. Didn't have much work, actually." Just had to transfer everything from my phone to Beacon's printer.
I could have used one of my printers, but since this world used Dust for everything, electricity wasn't really a widely spread energy. It was still used in various places, but to a lesser extent.
Could I use the power generators I had in the VoidBag and use one of my printers? Yes, but I didn't think it would be worth it. What if I need all the energy from these generators in the future... Probably not, but screw it.
"I'm not going to say whether your sleep habits are healthy or not, since you know your body, but be careful not to overload yourself." Glynda said with a surprisingly concerned tone. "I can't tell you the number of times students have overloaded themselves. Don't do the same."
Was it because I was almost the same age as her students? Probably. But it was good to know that she cared, not about me, but about the students. She seemed to take the job seriously.
"I'll be careful." Was my brief reply. "Well, I'm off then. I have some things to do before heading out to the Vale." I waved as I left the room.
How long will it take Ozpin to realize there's no dead fish in his office? Oh sweet paranoia, maybe he'll start smelling a nonexistent odor?
Would be funny.
[…]
"Let's finally open this thing." I spoke aloud to (CHAT) as I held the Frozen Chest in my hands. It wasn't a real chest, but a miniature one.
It must have been about thirty centimeters, a small box, icy blue in color, with several small white parts and a lock in the middle. There were several small runes all over it too. I'll see what they do later.
First, let's see what comes out of this chest.
"Wait!" I was stopped from opening the chest by a shout. I easily recognized the voice...
("Wait! We're coming!")
... The voices, in this case.
"Ruby?" It wasn't just her, Lucy too, and from what I could see on the Minimap and hear the footsteps, Yang, Weiss, and Blake weren't far behind either. "Shouldn't you be in class?"
You, since the others were also here. It was early, but her classes had already started.
"We're not skipping class!" Ruby shouted. "Ozpin let us out. Something about an extra-curricular assignment and that we could choose to accompany a professor to learn from them." She explained quickly as she circled around me and looked at the chest in my hands.
("Good morning, Lucy's companion!")
"Good morning. Lucy." I greeted the axe before turning to Ruby.
"And you chose me, I assume." I shook my head. Was this some kind of revenge from the man? I don't mind having company if that's what he thinks. Or was it for another reason?...
"Of course. Who else?" Ruby chuckled softly as she poked the chest with her finger. "So, are you going to open the chest or not?"
"I will after the three of them arrive." I pointed to the rooftop door.
It didn't take them more than two minutes to catch up with us. All well, the only one who seemed a bit out of breath was Weiss, but even she recovered quickly.
"Sorry for the delay. We're not as fast as our leader." Weiss straightened her clothes as she spoke. "Thank you for waiting, we didn't want to miss the opening."
"It's not every day we see something magical happening right in front of us." Yang commented as she pulled Ruby into a hug. "Well, besides the stream and my little sister's eyes."
"What's in this thing, anyway?" Blake asked, stepping away from the kicks Ruby was giving to try to get out of her sister's arms. "Something absurd like your mask but with an ice theme?" She pointed to my face.
"Something like that. Not as strong as the Bone Helm, but I hope just as useful." That's what I hoped for. "Here, take a look." I used the Item Analysis on the chest for the stream to see.
-//-
[Frozen Chest (Quest)]
Type: Furniture/Storage
Rarity: Amber
Defense: 150
Durability: 500/500
Ability: Maintains a space of 50x50x50 meters inside the chest with the ability to control the temperature between 0 ~ -50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit).
Usage: Open the lid to receive rewards!
Possible rewards - Primary items (only one):
Ice Boomerang (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Ice Blade (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Ice Skates (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Snowball Cannon (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Blizzard in a Bottle (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Flurry Boots (1) - Drop chance: 15.51%
Extractinator (1) - Drop chance: 4.9%
Fish Pet (1) - Drop chance: 2%
[…]
Possible rewards - Secondary items (only two):
Ice Machine (1) - Drop chance: 14.29%
Ice Mirror (1) - Drop chance: 10%
Ice Torch (100) - Drop chance: 30%
Healing Potion (10) - Drop chance: 14.29%
Mana Potion (10) - Drop chance: 14.29%
Recall Potion (5) - Drop chance: 14.29%
Wormhole Potion (1) - Drop chance: 2.84%
[…]
Tertiary items (All):
Royal Gold Coin (100)
Boreal Wood (100)
Ice Blocks (100)
Snow Blocks (100)
…
[…]
Description: A style of chest widely used in a fallen ice kingdom against a powerful army. A simple design, yet effective in its essence, often used to store items that required very specific temperatures.
[…]
~ An ice chest, a refrigerator, call it what you will, you can still store things inside ~
-//-
"There are a lot more items than I expected..." I remembered the primary items, but this many potions was new to me.
Royal coins weren't those coins only the rich used?
"Blizzard in a Bottle?" I heard Blake murmur in astonishment.
"ICE BLADE!" Ruby yelled from Yang's arms, unable to break free.
"Of course that's what she notices first." Weiss pinched her nose. "I have questions, but I think it's better to save them until after seeing which item you got."
"I agree." I nodded and lifted the chest lid before anyone said anything else.
As soon as the chest lid opened, the entire Beacon rooftop cooled by several degrees, nothing that could affect me, but from the trembling of the four behind me I'd guess it was a big drop.
With the opening of the lid, three blue lights shone from the bottom of the chest before flying out of it and spreading around me.
A sword, a torch, and a potion, all blue, the first two colder than the surrounding environment.
"ICE BLADE!" Ruby shouted again, but didn't move towards the sword, none of the four did. Well, it seems watching the stream made their paranoia against magical items high.
Not that Ruby could move, since Yang was still holding her.
"I'm a little disappointed, to be honest." I let my thoughts out.
"You just got a magical ice sword and you say you're disappointed?" Yang commented as she finally set Ruby down, who could barely seem to stand still.
Blake and Weiss shared the same opinion.
"I'm not disappointed with the sword. But that I didn't get the Ice Mirror." If it was like the one in the game, many of my problems would vanish.
At least I got a Wormhole Potion, which wasn't bad, nor were the torches. I'll see if I can replicate the icy fire coming out of them, but a part of me still preferred the mirror...
I really wanted that mirror...
"Let's see what this thing does." The first item I picked up was the Ice Blade.
The sword itself was cold to the touch, maybe an ordinary person would need to wear protective gloves or some kind of energy to shield themselves, but it wasn't anything that would really hurt me at the moment.
The Ice Blade was about four feet long, with the curved blade light blue in color that lightened to white on the cutting edge, with the hilt in a darker blue, just like the handle.
The moment I touched the handle, I already had an idea of how the sword worked, but I still used the Item Analysis on it, mainly because of the runes I could see on the weapon, both on the hilt and the blade, but also for another reason...
I didn't know why, but I felt like the sword didn't like me.
-//-
[Ice Blade: Eis-Himmel (Legendary)]
Runes: Sharpness/Defense Break/Mana Absorption (Ice)/Mana Absorption/Anti-Foreigner (Terraria)/Anti-Solar Pillar/Anti-Sun (Attribute)
Type: Weapon
Rarity: Light Red (Originally Blue)
Prefix: Legendary: +15% (Damage)/+15% (Durability)/+3 Rarity Tier/Das Klagen der Königin (Ability)
Damage: 100 (115) ~ 900 (1035) (Based on temperature)
Knockback: 4.75 (Average)
Durability: 8278/11111 (12777.65) (Regenerative)
Ability (1): Is capable of decreasing its temperature based on absorbed mana.
Current temperature: -28 degrees Celsius (-18.4 Fahrenheit)
Maximum temperature: 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit)
Minimum temperature: -170 degrees Celsius (-274 Fahrenheit)
NOTE!: If the sword's temperature exceeds 0 degrees Celsius (-32 Fahrenheit) or falls below -170 degrees Celsius (-274 Fahrenheit) due to external factors, the Ice Blade's durability will begin to rapidly decrease.
Ability (2): When charged with mana, the Ice Blade can release an ice projectile at the cost of some of its durability and temperature.
Ability (3): Is capable of regenerating itself using mana or absorbing ice.
Ability - Das Klagen der Königin: Converts all mana around the user into mana (Ice) and greatly lowers the temperature at the cost of a large portion of the Ice Blade's durability.
Significantly weakens any enemy whose element is "Fire".
[…]
Description: The first creation of a blacksmith who later became a king, a weak and flawed work, but cherished by his queen as a memento of the past, carrying it with her at all times as a lucky charm.
The Ice Blade never saw blood, war, or death until the abrupt end of its creator in a bitter battle against an enemy from beyond the world.
In her mourning, the queen inadvertently, as she cried and mourned over her husband's body, modified the weapon, her mana reacting to her lament, her dying husband's wish reacting to her queen's sorrow, creating a weapon capable of protecting her in that moment of despair.
The king would judge the current weapon as above average, useful only for emergencies.
The queen would judge the weapon as the greatest weapon, her most precious possession, the last memory of her love and what saved her in her weakest moment.
[..]
~ A flawed, weak weapon, I could do better with my eyes closed ~
~ The last vestige of my love, my eternal king who protected me to the end ~
-//-
"This explains a lot... I can already feel the problems starting to arise..." To be honest, I wanted to throw this thing away, is it still possible?
Why the hell!? Anti-Foreigner (Terraria) and Anti-Sun (Attribute)? I understand now why the feeling that the weapon didn't like me.
Did this damn weapon forget to shout: "I hate you, you son of a bitch alien from the sun!"?
And the less said about the "Solar Pillar" part, the better for my sanity.
Before any of the four could say anything, I threw the Ice Blade into my inventory.
"Ignore the sword. It never existed, it was all a big hallucination." I said aloud, looking at the shocked faces of the four and the animated messages from (CHAT).
To everyone, I had received a new badass weapon, for me, it was a sign that I had only received more problems.
Will I use this thing? Obviously yes, it was an absurdly strong and cool weapon, if it weren't for the problems it carried, I would scream with happiness. I just didn't want to think about it too much right now.
I wasn't in Terraria, Terraria's problems stayed in Terraria... And why the hell was this thing in German? Probably the language of the kingdom, or something like that...
"Next item." I picked up the torch with the cold blue flame in my hand.
-//-
[Ice Torch]
Type: Item/Light Source
Rarity: White
Usage: Place somewhere, it illuminates in blue!
Description: A torch created using a special material filled with mana (Ice) found in a long-destroyed ice kingdom.
Creates a cold flame that absorbs heat from the environment and consumes it to continue 'burning' forever.
[…]
~ "What is this?" "A blue light." "What does it do?" "It's blue." ~
-//-
Useful. Not that I needed light, but still good to have an example of something that consumed heat, I'll study this thing later.
I threw the torches from the inventory next to the Frozen Chest, where the rest of the torches were. I'll take them out of there later.
Since no one said anything, I took the opportunity to read the description of the Wormhole Potion.
-//-
[Wormhole Potion]
Type: Item/Potion
Rarity: Blue
Usage: Drink the potion and think of someone, if that person is considered an ally of the drinker and also considers you an ally, you will be teleported to them.
NOTE!: Only works on 'allies' in the same 'world'. If the being that the person who drank the potion thought of is not in the same 'world', the potion will not work.
Description: A potion difficult to make even by the best Potioneers.
Its materials are relatively simple to acquire, except one, a rare fish found only in some specific areas of the world.
Items used in the creation of the potion:
Water 39 ml (Clean and mana-rich).
Blinkroot 0.3 g (Preserved).
Slime Gel 32 g (Neutral/Blue or Green).
Specular Fish Scales (Space) 48 g (Preserved).
[…]
~ The process of creating this thing was troublesome, half teleports, or just a third are ugly to watch... ~
-//-
I still preferred the Ice Mirror over this potion, but it was useful. If I could find a place and items to create potions, I could replicate it over time. Just like I could already almost replicate a life potion, the only real problem in this case here was this fish.
A fish swimming in space?! Found only in areas where space was altered and distorted by the natural mana of the world?
Even if I knew such a place, I wouldn't go there just for fishing. Damn, I didn't like my chances of surviving being literally warped in space, let alone standing still to fish!
If I found that fish, I'd make armor or an amulet with its scales before a potion. It would be more useful.
"Any questions or can I open the Recipe Potion?" I asked the four around me.
The (CHAT) had several questions, the four also, but they shook their heads.
"Let's wait." Weiss was the spokesperson for the team. I felt it would be Ruby who would have this role if she weren't still somewhat stunned with the Ice Blade.
No dilly-dallying, I pulled the Recipe Potion from the inventory. It was a simple paper with a single use, tear it.
That's what I did. As soon as the paper was torn in two, it glowed and regenerated, only this time with a potion recipe written on it.
"It's not the Gravitation Potion. Too bad..." I sighed. It wasn't even the recipe for the Endurance Potion or the Recall Potion, which would also be something good to have.
Well, at least the potion was useful and, most importantly, it was a potion whose recipe I didn't have yet: Water Walking Potion.
Could I recreate this potion using just my energy? Probably. But it was still a good potion and useful.
I'm going to throw this thing into a random pool's water trough and wait for chaos to ensue...
"Good rewards." I threw the recipe into the inventory and turned to Team RWBY. "Anyone know a good restaurant? I haven't eaten the food of this world yet." I asked.
They all raised their hands, Weiss won in rock, paper, scissors.
[...]
POV: Ruby Rose.
"I would have won if I had used my Semblance..." I wasn't pouting, Yang lies.
"That would be considered cheating." The monster who brought us to this fancy restaurant snorted.
"Isn't her Semblance just one of her abilities? Why would it be cheating?" Devas asked, looking around. He seemed as out of place as me, Yang, and Blake.
I could almost hear Weiss saying: It's 'Yang, Blake, and I'. But I dismissed those thoughts.
At least we had managed to get a table on the second floor, which was emptier and close to the window. It was a beautiful view, we could see much of the city from here.
"I don't think I've ever been to such a fancy place in my entire life." Devas commented after we ordered everything. Thankfully, Weiss and Devas were the ones paying for everything, I've never seen so many zeros next to a plate of pasta...
Come to think of it, was this a date?! Were there even dates with five people? How would that work?... Gah! Calm down.
"Neither have I. Even Yang's seventeenth birthday wasn't in such an expensive place." I looked around. Everything was so white and bright...
Blake seemed to agree, her ears beneath the bow on top of her head moving slowly.
"I wouldn't choose a place like this to celebrate even if I could. It's not my style." The traitor, I mean, Yang, waved her hand.
"Parties and drinking?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You know me so well Blakey. Do you have the keys to my mind or something?" Yang laughed at her own pun.
I felt physical pain.
With Blake and Weiss, it was the same. Devas didn't seem very affected, which, from Yang's smile, seemed to encourage her. No!
"What do you think of Remnant, Devas?" I quickly asked before my sister made a worse pun. I noticed the waiter looking in our direction.
"I mean, what do you think of Vale?"... I had to remember not to say things like that out loud. Watch your words Ruby, watch your words.
"A beautiful place. I didn't have time to go see any attractions, but what little I saw wasn't bad." Devas replied calmly while looking at me. "Especially at night. I like the view that Vale's night provides." It wasn't hard to figure out why.
Hehe. I knew he'd like our moon.
"Even the Grimm?" Weiss asked.
"I'm used to mindless evil monsters trying to kill me. Don't worry." Devas laughed as if he were telling an inside joke, which he was. Zombies, Hallucinations, the Deerclops.
("Grimm are just trees that move!").
Only Devas and I didn't grimace at Lucy's voice.
"That's right, Lucy. Grimm are just trees that move," Devas replied. I gave Lucy's head two pats.
"I still can't believe the axe talks..." Weiss sighed.
"I don't think Lucy is the most surprising thing we've ever seen, but still... A talking axe is in the top ten." Blake nodded. "Maybe top twenty, actually. The list went up a bit after you arrived."
"Discovered anything from your world you didn't know before?" Devas chuckled.
"If only that were the case..." Grimm had a queen! Our headmaster was also some kind of magician like in fairy tales... My eyes sparkled and petrified Grimm!
I already knew this last part for a long time, but it was still surprising. I had a superpower! Semblances don't count.
There was also the fact that Cinder and her team were undercover traitors... I thought Emerald was my friend...
I pushed these sad thoughts away and refocused on the conversation.
It didn't take long for the food to arrive. We chatted a bit until then before taking a break to eat. I wanted to ask about the super cool ice sword from earlier, but I held back.
Devas didn't seem to like something about it for some reason. I also didn't want to seem weird. Normal knees, Ruby. Normal knees...
Weiss was the one who restarted the conversation.
"About Dust. You said earlier you were going to buy it from my family. Has that changed?" She asked.
"Because of Ozpin and James?" Weiss nodded. "No, that hasn't changed. I had promised that to you before, I like to think I keep my promises."
Weiss seemed relieved by the answer.
"Any trouble, Weiss?" I asked. "Did something happen?"
You could say Ruby Rose was a bit naive, but not stupid... I hope. I could recognize when a friend was in trouble. Weiss seemed like it.
"Nothing, just..." She sighed. "My father. He keeps messaging and calling me to come back and inherit the company. Saying I've 'played' enough and it's time for me to take my responsibilities."
"And you think a big sale of Dust will calm him down?" My sister pointed the fork at Weiss.
"Manners. Pointing utensils is impolite." Weiss said, Yang ignored.
"- Wouldn't it be the opposite in this case? Something like: 'You got that from Beacon, could have done better here at the company'."
"No. If I hadn't been at Beacon, I wouldn't have met Ruby and with that, Devas. I'll say I can get more contacts here, that I'm building my own network."
"And do you think that will work?" Devas asked.
"It will work... At least I hope so..." Weiss sighed again. "If anything, I have enough money if he wants to cut off my access from the family account. I got this idea from the stream by the way."
Stark had good ideas. He was like an Uncle Qrow, just less fighting, giant sword, and drunk and more really cool armor, engineering, and drunk.
I upgraded Crescent Rose because of him. The second coolest uncle of all, Uncle Qrow still won.
"I should stop by Atlas this month I'm here. Do you want me to talk to your father?" Devas asked. The horrified look on Weiss's face brightened up the air at the table again.
"No!... I mean, no. I know my father, there are only two ways this meeting ends..." Weiss seemed embarrassed about something.
"I'm not going to kill your father, Weiss."
"That's one of the ways. The other one that really worries me..." Weiss coughed, turning to me to hide the blush on her face. No one else saw it, I did... Suspicious...
"Your father being murdered isn't what worries you. He must be a nice guy." Devas commented. "No sarcasm." He said sarcastically.
I chuckled. Blake and Yang snorted.
"Jacques Schnee is a pure and holy man. A role model human being." If sarcasm in Blake's voice were liquid, Vale would be sinking. "No sarcasm, of course.
Yang laughed, Devas and I too.
"It's still my father you're talking about, Blake." Weiss shook her head. She could try to hide it, but everyone could see the smile on her face. "But I won't deny that my father isn't one of the best people in the world."
"One of the worst... Cough... Cough."
Subtle, Blake, subtle.
After that, the conversation turned to a lighter and happier note.
"Millia!" I hugged the little slime, who looked confused. "I've wanted to hug you for so long!"
SO CUTE!
"Aren't you worried about letting others see her?" Yang asked, looking around. I imagine someone was watching me hug the slime, but I didn't notice, too focused on Millia's cuteness.
"I'll just say she's part of my Semblance, if anything. I've seen some really absurd Semblances in the past few days; summoning a gel ball isn't that unusual."
"And what if they tell you they want to buy her?" Blake asked.
"I'll refuse." Devas replied.
"And if they try to force you?" Yang asked this time.
"Someone will die. Simple."
"That's what I figured..."
Murder wasn't cool!... But I'll let it slide if it's for Millia.
"SO CUTE!"
[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
The bill was ridiculously expensive, luckily I had extorted Ozpin... I mean, received my salary in advance. Well, not that he cared, something along the lines of: 'You're helping us with Amber and everything else.'
I'll pay the guy back anyway.
"Don't break my informant's club." I warned Yang before we entered Junior's. It was about time for them to open.
"Your informant?" Yang raised an eyebrow.
"He's the only one I know, so yes. Behave."
I didn't let Yang respond and walked up to the bar. I already knew what she was going to say, something involving corporal punishment probably. Hormones were strong here.
Junior's look when he saw me was calmer than when he saw Yang. Miltia and Melanie, who were dancing on the dance floor, also stopped dancing and seemed to have seen the devil.
"Oops?" Yang tapped the side of her head.
The nerve...
"She won't break anything." I was the first to speak, while Yang was receiving stares from all her teammates. "Good afternoon, Junior. Do you have what I asked for?" I had sent him a message yesterday after leaving the club.
Besides Roman's number, I had also gotten Junior's, the twins', and Neo's numbers.
The latter had sent me several messages already, all of them were emojis. Why the hell didn't she write, I don't know, did she want to be mute by text too?
I didn't dwell too much on the thoughts of someone I was sure was a sociopath.
"I got some things, about half of it. One day is too short." Junior replied before handing a drink to a guy next to him.
Less than a day, actually. He was fast, I didn't think he would get everything.
Junior grabbed some papers from under the counter and handed them to me.
"Roman's papers are in there too." He informed me. I took the papers and flipped through some.
"You bought a fake ID?" Blake approached to read the papers. As soon as the words left her mouth, everyone did the same. "Why?"
"Junior is faster than Ozpin or James." Was my response. Screw bureaucracy. Whether my identity was fake or not wouldn't change much anyway.
Through legal means, it would take a week, maybe more. Here Junior did the same in less than a day.
I quickly flipped through the rest of the papers. Roman had done a quick job too, possible hideouts of Cinder, more detailed information about her and her two 'henchmen', and some information from people who claimed to have seen someone resembling her heading east.
Nothing like revenge against an abusive boss to motivate a man.
"Which city is to the east?" I folded the papers and put them in my pocket.
"City or kingdom? If it's the latter, it's Mistral." Weiss was the one who answered, looking somewhat disgusted at the bench before sitting down.
Mistral... The kingdom where Haven is, right? This almost confirmed that Lionheart was a traitor. It seems that even if the key doesn't open the Vault there, I'll end up visiting the place.
"Are you going to want something or just came to pick up the information?" Junior asked. I grabbed Yang's wrist and lowered her hand.
"Something tells me you're going to drink too much and I'll be forced to take care of a drunk and 'handsy' Yang." She looked away without responding, it told me everything I needed. I chuckled amused.
"Yang?!" Ruby shouted, her cheeks speckled with red.
"He said it, not me!" Yang raised her hands. "I'm not guilty of anything."
"He said it, you thought it." Blake ignored Yang's betrayed look. "We still have a class with Goodwitch anyway, I don't think she'll be happy to find you drunk when we return to Beacon."
The horror in Yang's face told me she hadn't thought that far ahead.
"Ignoring Yang's vulgar plans. What do you think you're doing?" I moved my hand to my right side, where I had my fake wallet, and grabbed the 'air' that shattered showing a Neo with her arm stretched towards me that I held by the wrist.
Her reaction wasn't one of surprise, like everyone else's, but rather sticking out her tongue and getting closer to me and looking up, my face, before pointing at Junior with her finger a few times.
"Do you want me to buy you a drink or stab him?" Junior shrunk at my words.
"Both?" I asked when she made a 'V' with her fingers and waved. "Get her a drink, Junior." The man moved fast, so did I, blocking Yang's punch towards Neo's head.
"Yang?" I asked.
"She tried to kill me before." It was the only response. The club got colder and quieter, the shadows flickered.
The eyes in them didn't, I managed to count them just in time...
"Explain yourself." My words weren't for Neo, who at that moment was looking at me with a look between fear and arousal.
Did I just attract crazies by accident?
No, my words were for Roman.
"Neo wasn't going to kill her, I ordered her to just pretend to kill her. There's a difference, I was already thinking about betraying Cinder at that time, that and killing a Beacon student would only bring me problems." The man walked calmly from the table he was at the back of the club as he spoke.
I could hear his knees trembling, I didn't comment.
I believed his words, not because I trusted Roman, but because I had seen Yang fight, even if I hadn't seen Neo, I had seen her Semblance.
If she wanted Yang dead, she would be dead; she wouldn't have been able to react in time. Aura could protect her, but it didn't make her invincible.
I sighed; the atmosphere returned to normal. I wasn't the only one sighing.
"I'm not going to argue about the anger you must be feeling." Yang's fiery hair gave her away. It wasn't just her; Blake's gaze wasn't happy either, even if it was directed more at Roman than at Neo. "But no fighting, not here." I looked around.
The place was crowded. Even though people weren't as relaxed anymore, a fight would only hurt innocents.
Yang realized this even with her head hot and forced herself to calm down. Her hair had stopped glowing, but her eyes were still red.
"You and me, outside. Let's go." She pointed to Neo and walked out of the bar; Blake followed her.
Neo pointed to her wrist, which was still attached, and then to the door. I released her, and she followed the other two.
"Devas?" Ruby looked at me worriedly. Weiss wasn't much different.
"Nothing will happen, I promise." That seemed to be enough to completely ease both of their concerns, and they relaxed. "Let's go." I started walking towards the door.
Ruby, Weiss, Roman, Miltia, and Melanie followed me. I'm sure Junior only didn't because he didn't want to leave the club unattended.
"Am I going to have to collect that favor?" Roman asked as we walked behind the three.
"No. Let the three of them sort it out." The girls had seen me talking to Neo and Roman yesterday; if Yang was really pissed off to the point of wanting to kill Neo, she would have told me yesterday in the chat so Neo wouldn't risk running away.
She was angry, I had no doubt about that, but something told me that Roman jumping in to help his little sister from Tyrian had some effect in calming that anger by a lot.
I was still sure she wanted to beat Neo up, but not to death, at least. Me interfering here would only mess things up; Yang wasn't a 'damsel in distress.'
My words seemed to relieve Roman, who walked lighter, as if he was going to see a show.
A Bull-Head later and a few more minutes of walking, we were in the Emerald Forest, or a part of it; it was far from Beacon.
A freaking huge forest.
Blake talked to Yang for a bit before stepping back.
"Not participating?" I had heard the conversation, but I asked anyway.
"Yang wants to settle the score with the gnome on her own." Blake was good with nicknames. I mentally patted myself on the back.
"Fair enough. And you? Nothing to settle?" Her glance at Roman earlier wasn't subtle.
"Nothing worth it." Blake shook her head.
Roman seemed slightly offended by Blake's words before shrugging and leaning against a tree.
I looked at Blake for a few more moments before making sure she was okay and turning to Neo and Yang.
"No Grimm will interrupt." Those were my words. "Want a countdown?"
Neither of them spoke; Neo couldn't and Yang didn't want to, focused on the former, but neither moved either.
I pulled a coin from my pocket.
"When the coin touches the ground." I tossed the coin into the air.
It spun in the air almost in slow motion before hitting the ground.
The ground beneath Yang exploded with a kick, the air around Neo shattered like glass.
[...]
NON-CANONICAL OMAKE: GODZILLA 2014
Following Godzilla and the Female MUTO was pretty damn easy; they were huge, impossible to lose sight of, and even though one of their steps equaled about two hundred of mine, I was faster.
The fight was what I expected from two things big enough to not exist without gravity collapsing their bodies.
"HOLY SH*T, THAT'S AWESOME!"
The part of the city where they were fighting had been evacuated; I cleared out the few remaining people. With nothing to worry about, the only thing filling my body was happiness.
Monster fights were freaking amazing; unfortunately, I already knew how this was going to end. Even if I hadn't seen the movie, my response would be the same.
The amount of energy Godzilla had within his body totally eclipsed that of the Female MUTO by more than five times. Describing this guy as the 'King of the Monsters' wasn't inaccurate.
"Worthy of the title of King of the Monsters," I murmured. I had to stabilize myself every second because of the fight.
If I couldn't feel the radiation of this world literally fortifying me, my body having absorbed the energy, which was different from the normal radiation I knew, I would worry about getting cancer near these two nuclear warheads with legs.
Every step the two took shook the earth; every blow made the city collapse even more. Godzilla never got injured.
It wasn't for lack of trying on the Female MUTO's part; quite the opposite, she tried and tried, blows with her enormous claws, bites, faster than Godzilla could react, didn't harm him.
Maybe he didn't even try because he knew he wouldn't pierce his skin. Nothing the Female MUTO tried worked, Godzilla didn't bleed once...
... The Female MUTO did, and a lot.
Godzilla was slower, but much more experienced; that was obvious. Whenever the Female MUTO gave an opening, she was injured; if it wasn't for Godzilla's slaps, it was by his tail or bite, mainly the latter.
I wouldn't say the Female MUTO was inexperienced in fights either, but she had a weakness... She diverted her gaze from the fight many times.
"Why the hell does she keep looking in my direction?" I raised my hand to my eyes. More of a habit than anything else. "Any idea?" The question wasn't for the (CHAT), but for the helicopter flying behind me.
Their courage to get close to the fight of two kaijus.
"I wouldn't shoot if I were you." The bullets wouldn't even pass through my aura, let alone my skin.
"We won't. I still want to live for a good few years." The soldier from before responded with a megaphone from the helicopter.
"Ford Brody. Didn't think we'd meet again." The man jumped when he realized my voice came from behind him and not from the half-ruined building in front.
His reflex was good; he turned around and punched my face in less than a second. I dodged, didn't want him to break his hand. He stopped attacking when he realized it was me.
"You scared me." He sighed before waving to the pilot, who kept the helicopter steady even with the scare, to fly away from the fight.
"I noticed. So, did the government send you?" I did know. Monarch.
"Yes." He didn't lie. "We captured images of you from the beginning of the fight and later, leaping across the buildings..."
"I imagine they sent you because of our short interaction before." A nod was my response. "Ask your questions; I'll answer what I can." I didn't turn my face away from the fight as I spoke.
Taking a hit from Godzilla's tail must hurt...
"Are you human?" It was the first question.
Why the hell was this damn question being asked to me so many times?
"Yes. I was born, grew up, and will die human." I answered the soldier. "I just have more strength than average." Having so many energies in my body and techniques did that.
"No, there aren't more of me." I lied, answering the question before it was even asked. It wasn't him who was really asking the questions, but the person behind the earpiece on him, a woman.
It was better for them to think I was 'unique' for now; maybe I'll show them the stream later. Now, it would only do more harm than good.
My 'prediction' scared Ford and the pilot a little; the huge rock that flew towards us scared them even more.
"Watch o-. What?" Ford shouted, warning the pilot to steer clear, before stopping his shout when the rock disappeared into the Voidbag.
"Continue the questions; I'll protect the helicopter. Just don't get too far from the fight; I want to watch." A slow and frightened nod was my response.
"What do you intend to do?"
"Many things. Be more specific."
"Do you intend to harm someone? Humanity." He didn't believe I was human, then.
"Not if I'm not harmed first. I'm sure you found me lying on the beach enjoying my vacation." Before those same vacations were disrupted by two kaijus.
I wasn't complaining.
"And no, I don't know much about kaijus. You guys know more than I do, actually." Technically, it was true; they had a lot more data. The man didn't even blink when I answered his superior on the earpiece.
I'm sure he only didn't give me the earpiece because I didn't ask and he was afraid of offending me.
I jumped from the helicopter before the man could react and kicked the air, doing a double jump; I reached about a hundred meters from the helicopter before landing and looking at the Female MUTO running in our direction.
The kaiju looked at me before turning to Godzilla and repeating that a few times and then turning back to the King of the Monsters and jumping to attack him.
"Damn cowardly parasite." I kicked the ground and returned to the helicopter. I think I had figured out why she couldn't take her eyes off me and why Godzilla always seemed to keep me in his sight throughout the whole fight.
"Tell me, Ford. What do your Monarch readings say about me?" The response was one word. He didn't even seem surprised that I knew about Monarch.
"Alpha."
That's what I thought.
[...]---[...]
Well, about the chapter. Devas finally opened the Bronze Chest and the Recipe Potion... About the chest, well, another plot in Terraria, one that I had already hinted could happen, even if it was in a 'wrong' way. The story twists with time...
Regarding the loot itself, I actually used a virtual roulette to see what Devas would get, I believe Ruby tampered with the roulette, since the first four times I spun it, it landed on the Ice Blade, then the Ice Boomerang, and the sixth time the Ice Blade again.
I didn't do the calculations, but it must be a pretty low chance of that happening. (The potion was the same, all random).
Finally, back to Juniors and Neo and Yang meet. I love Neo, more than Yang actually, but Devas favors Yang for obvious reasons. Next chapter: Fight between the "Blonde with fire hair" and the "Sociopath with an ice cream theme".
Goodnight to everyone and happy reading!
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