Chapitre 80: Learning That The Plot Has Changed
It didn't take very long for the airship to pick them up. On the way, Qrow gave them a more detailed explanation of their mission. A woman named Amber Autumn was under the secret protection of the kingdom of Vale.
Her guardian huntsmen usually send a weekly report to Ozpin, updating him on the situation. However, this week's report never came.
Qrow told them that there were people after Amber, bad people. People that wouldn't mind killing her and everyone in a 2 mile radius just to keep their involvement a secret.
Magna asked him about the details again and again over the trip but Qrow was adamant about staying silent. Feeling the frustration build inside him, Magna's eyes suddenly lit up as an idea popped up in his head.
He shot up from his chair with wide eyes as he pointed behind Qrow and screamed, "Raven!"
Before anyway could get into a combat stance, June's eyes blazed in a floral green as a ball of water shot past Qrow. It's speed wasn't very fast but it managed to surprise everyone.
The waterball slammed into a blinking red light, causing a small piece of fire dust to fall to the ground. Magna acted awkwardly as he wryly smiled, "Sorry... false alarm…"
What he didn't know was that a certain bandit chief was hiding in a wooden crate a few feet away. A cold sweat dripped down her face as the bandit chief mentally cursed Magna's perceptiveness.
Qrow, however, stared at June with wide eyes as he saw her sigh in relief, her flaming eyes returning to normal as she sat back down.
"Wait a fucking minute! You! What did you just do!?" Qrow roared, pointing his finger at June as he started to panic.
June released a high-pitched 'Eep!' as she dove behind Magna. Emily angrily glared at Qrow as she slapped his hand away from June, "Don't yell at her! You gave the poor girl a fright! Plus, that was her semblance."
For the first time in a while, Qrow didn't back down as he said, "No, that wasn't her semblance! A semblance has rules that it follows, laws. We can't create something from nothing."
He pointed at June once again, frantically shaking his finger as he continued, "But her! That's what she just did!"
Emily slapped his hand again, this time much harder as she growled, "Maybe she just used her sweat? You think about that 'genius'?"
It was at this point Magna decided that the little feud between his mother and Qrow needed to end. He stepped between the two and said, "Mum, Qrow, calm down. The last thing we need is you two fighting inside the airship."
A quiet 'thank you!' echoed from the pilot as Magna continued, "Mum, you need to let go of your grudge. I know that Qrow can be… Qrow sometimes, but he can't help it. His semblance doesn't really leave him with much to be happy about."
Qrow already told Magna about his semblance. 'Bad luck charm', that's what he named it. It literally made Qrow a walking, talking bad luck magnet. Oddly enough though, Qrow's semblance seemed unable to affect him.
That's one of the reasons why Qrow liked having Magna around. He was literally the only person that doesn't have to dodge something every now and then.
Magna has also seen what happens when Qrow 'uses' his semblance. Grimm would either 'coincidentally' trip on tree roots or 'accidentally' fall into his weapon.
Anyway, Emily quietly thought over her son's words and sighed. She knew that Qrow had problems and holding a grudge against him wasn't going to help anyone.
After a few quiet minutes, Emily gave Magna a gently kiss on his forehead as she said, "Alright Magna, I'll forgive and forget. I'm sorry for beating you, Qrow. Do you… do you think you can forgive me?"
Qrow blinked. He looked between Magna and his mother then blinked again. An awkward expression appeared on his face as he said, "Oh, uh, it's fine Emily. I mean, I did deserve it so it's all water under the bridge."
Magna lightly chuckled while watching Qrow. To say he was awkward was an understatement. He was social enept. If he wasn't being judge or berated, Qrow's brain didn't know how to act.
It was actually rather sad. Unless he was being spoke to in a negative fashion, Qrow literally didn't know how to respond. That's not to say it wasn't funny.
Suddenly, the cabin they were staying in started flashing red as the pilot's voice came from the intercom, "All personal on board, brace for impact! A Lancer swarm has just appeared and taken out our engines! I repeat! Brace for impact!"
Deciding to take a play out from Weiss's book, Magna quickly embodied Weiss and closed his eyes. On the outside, multiple black glyphs appeared in the path of the airship.
Each time it passed through a glyph, the ships descent got slower and slower. However, different from when Weiss did it, Magna's aura reserves were full.
He kept slowing down the ship until the pilot's voice happily said, "Due to the ships sudden decrease in speed, I think I'll be able to properly land. Who ever is doing this, please keep going. Even though I said I can land us, we still need to go slower."
Qrow was praying that his semblance wouldn't kick in while Emily was consoling June. Due to all the shaking, June was as pale as a ghost while trembling in fear.
The ships speed kept decreasing as the pilot maneuver closer and closer to the forest floor. The airship bulldozed through a couple of trees as the pilot roared, "OK EVERYONE! HOLD ON TO SOMETHING! WE'RE ABOUT TO 'LAND'!"
Magna wasted no time as he grabbed his mother and threw her into his shadow. He then threw both June and Qrow into his shadow before moving towards the cockpit.
Once he opened the door, Magna realised he only had a few seconds before the airship crashed. Gritting his teeth, Magna pulled the surprised pilot from his seat and into the shadows.
Since everyone was in his shadow, Magna couldn't go inside himself so he did the next best thing. Taking a deep breath, a dark green aura surrounded him as he pushed Usato's healing magic to the fullest.
Unlike items, when Magna or Amber took people into their shadows, the shadow world became unstable.
It was fine when it was only one person but when there were more people, the shadow world would destabilize and random eject everyone out in a 5 mile radius.
The airship hit the ground hard, shaking and rattling as Magna resisted the urge to hurl. He could feel the entire contents of his stomach being shaken all over the place.
The only reason he wasn't suffering from internal bleeding was because of his aura and the constant healing magic.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as the ship rapidly approached a rather large tree.
"HOLY SHI-" Before he could finish speaking, the airship rammed into the tree. Magna's body flew forward, bursting through the glass windows as he slammed face first into the tree.
Temporarily stunned due to the hit, Magna fell on top of the airship before rolling off, landing in the shards of broken glass that littered the ground around the ship.
Magna coughed up a small mouthful of blood before shakily trying to stand. Sadly, he was too sore to stand as he fell back to the ground, hissing in pain as the glass dug into his hands and knees.
Seconds later, the glass shards ejected from his body as his healing magic did it jobs. Magna could feel the wounds and pain disappearing as he slowly hobbled away from the crash site.
Once he was sure that there wasn't any glass around him, Magna reached into his shadow and started pulling everyone out.
The moment she exited the shadows, Emily cried as she scanned over Magna with a deathly worried look, "My baby boy! A-Are you okay!?"
She resisted the urge to hug him as she knew what happened, they all did. You see, the shadow world is like a one-way mirror. When inside, they could see the world around them down to the slightest detail with the only difference being that you had no way to influence it.
They all watched over Magna in a tangible form that wasn't affected by the laws of physics. They saw him bare the brunt of the crash, how he flew through the windshield and smashed against the tree.
They watched his pained expression when he fell back down and landed on the glass. Hell, June was a crying mess while even Qrow seemed equally worried and concerned.
What made Magna's eyes widened though was person standing behind Qrow with conflicted look on her face.
"Raven…" Muttered Magna as his eyes slowly narrowed.
The pilot quickly left the area as he ran back to the ship to salvage what he could, hoping he could find a working communicator since they were well out of scroll service range.
Raven, seeing that she became the center of attention, coughed as she explained, "I'm not here to fight, not after what just happened. I may put strength above everything but what you just did deserves respect."
Magna didn't know what he found worse, the fact she was here or that she didn't seem to be lying when she said she respected him. He could feel a migraine coming on as she said, "Okay. Why ARE you here then?"
A soft sigh escaped Raven's lips, "Now, before you try to attack me, just know that I don't wish to fight, at least not at this moment. I want to fight you when you're at full strength."
A curt nod came her way as she took a deep breath and said, "I… was waiting for the perfect moment to kill June and take her powers. Preferably when she was alone."
"HEALING PUNCH!!!"
Magna wasted no time as he brutally smashed a glowing green fist into Raven's nose. The punch sent the bandit chief reeling backwards as she grunted in pain.
Emily had stars in her eyes as she puffed out her chest on pride and said, "That's my son!"
Qrow had the widest smile he's ever had on his face as he desperately tried to hold in his laughter. Suddenly, he dropped his smile as he appeared infront of Magna.
With a simple flick of his wrist, his sword expertly pushed aside Raven's weapon as he locked her arm in placed. Since she was blind with anger, Qrow thrust the barrel of his transforming weapon into her face as he plainly said, "Enough Raven."
Everyone could see the fires of her anger burning in her eyes as she roared, "Enough? ENOUGH!? That brat just punched me in the nose and all you have to say is 'Enough'!?"
Before she could continue her ranting, a heavy pressure fell on her shoulders as Emily looked at her with a smile that wasn't a smile and said, "What… did you just call my son?"
As if all her anger was a lie, Raven subconsciously made her self smaller as she quietly muttered, "I…"
Seeing things were getting off track, Magna quickly pushed the two apart as he said in a firm tone, "Now is neither the time nor the place for this argument. Raven, considering what you just told me, your lucky I didn't punch you seriously or else you'd be wishing you didn't follow us."
Raven glared at Magna and scoffed. Emily seemed like she was just about to burst but Magna quickly reigned her in. A small sigh escaped his lips as he said, "First things first, where are we?"
As if he heard the question, the pilot came sprinting to them with a wide smile on his face as he happily exclaimed, "I found a working communicator and contacted Vale's CCTS! We're only a couple klicks away from the village!"
A big smile adorned Magna's face as he clapped his hands together, "Great! Which way?"
"They said that it was northeast of here." Replied the pilot.
"Okay people, we know which way we need to go. Pilot, what are you going to do? Did you want to come with us on foot or did you call for an airship extraction?" Magna asked.
Emily and Raven were very surprised with how professional Magna was acting while Qrow had another smug smile on his face.
"That's right, I've taught my student well." He said as a prideful smile appeared on his face.
The pair turned towards Qrow with shock on their faces as they quietly muttered, "That's so unexpected… Qrow ACTUALLY taught him something useful."
Obviously, the pair wasn't quiet enough as Qrow heard ever word. He gave them a sarcastic laugh before moving to drink from his flask. However, nothing came out from his flask… again.
Qrow silently grumbled. While they were all caught up in the moment, Magna had already made plans with the pilot.
Because he was only a normal person and not a huntsmen, the pilot said that he would stay by the airship and wait for evac. Luckily, he wasn't going to let them leave empty-handed as he gave Magna a map and compass.
The map had every known village and settlement marked down so Magna was very grateful for having it.
Suddenly, a loud growling sound echoed out as everyone minus Magna and June got into a combat stance, scanning the area around them for any grimm.
Magna snickered lightly, only to be punched in the shoulder by a rosy-cheeked June. Eventually, everyone put 1 and 1 together and chuckled at the blushing maiden.
With everyone staring at her, June felt embarrassed and shy as she quietly slipped behind Magna. He could see the tears begin to form in her eyes so Magna softly ruffled her hair as he said, "Let's have lunch before we leave."
Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard him, leaving the pilot confused as he looked towards the others for an answer. However, the only thing they said was, "You're in for a treat."
---
After an hour and a half, everyone sat lazily around a small fire pit. Their stomachs were slightly bloated but no one paid it any mind as a look of pure bliss floated over all of their faces.
The pilot had left halfway through lunch when the airship showed up. He left crying as he knew that he would never be able to eat something that delicious ever again.
Magna contemplated hitching a ride on the airship but quickly decided against it. The airship had a set schedule to follow. Even just showing up to pick up the pilot took alot of convincing for the superiors to actually allow it.
Shaking his head, Magna slowly hefted himself off the ground and slowly started to stretch his body, "Alrighty! I'll be going on ahead."
During the little lunch break they had, Magna quickly filled them in on his plan. Since Raven was here, Magna was going to take full advantage of her semblance.
Magna was going to travel the distance by himself and he would call them when he arrived. Since the communicator could contact the airship, he only needed to tell them when he arrived over the radio station.
He did consider taking them with him in his shadow but ended up rejecting that idea. His shadow walker ability was his trump card for escaping. Having people inside would only do more damage than good, especially if he ran into grimm.
Fighting would only waste time. They already wasted alot of time to have lunch, so Magna felt like getting there as soon as possible. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
Since the forest around them created alot of shadows, Magna quietly slipped into the darkness before rocketing forward. When travelling through the shadows, Magna was marginally faster than everyone.
The aura drain for travelling through the shadows wasn't light but he knew he could make it at least a fifth of the way before needing a break.
Luckily for him, the scenery was breathtaking. Plots of fertile land, seemingly untouched by humans. Rivers, lush grooves of flowers, it was simply beautiful.
After a few minutes, Magna suddenly came to stop. The sound of angry voices started setting off alarms in his head.
He raced towards the voices and found about 10 different faunus, all wearing grimm like masks on their faces as they searched around the forest for something.
'The whitefang… what the hell are they doing out here?' Magna mused to himself. Deciding to find out why they were here, Magna slipped into the nearest person's shadow.
"Why the hell are we out here? My girlfriend was finally ready to take it to the next step, you know?!"
"Moon, seriously, shut the fuck up. If you want to disobey a direct order from Adam, go ahead, be my guest. You'd think a Siberian husky faunus would be happy being outdoors."
The pair continued to argue while Magna was having an internal panic attack.
'Adam? YOU MEAN ADAM TAURUS! SHIT FUCK SHIT! WHEN DID- HOW- Okay! Calm down… T-theres no proof tha-'
"Hey, why is Adam working with that human woman anyway? I thought that members of the whitefang hated humans?" Asked Moon as he watched a butterfly flutter pass him.
The other whitefang member rolled his eyes at his companions behaviour and replied, "It's because of nanya."
"Nanya?"
"Nanya-business. Now stop talking and start searching. We need to find that bloody airship. Apparently, the huntsmen that was on-board was coming to protect that Amber girl." Growled the whitefang member as he walked away.
Magna felt a strong urge to go back but stopped himself. Taking a few deep breaths, Magna was now even more determined to get to that village. He didn't consider himself a hero, Oum knows that he doesn't want to be one.
However. This world is now the world he is living in. He's seen what Salem is capable of and what she wants to do with this world. And frankly? Magna was not having any of it.
This was his world. He had family here, friends, people he cherished. He was not about to let some spoilt immortal witch destroy the world just because she had a god-complex.
Hell, if he wanted to, Magna was pretty sure that if he pushed Naruto's cluster to its limits, he would become 1/4 god. The sage of six paths inheritance just has that much power.
Deciding to buy Qrow and the others some time, Magna grinned as he embodied a certain drunk.
Thus, chaos ensued.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone