Chapitre 34: Invasion Pt. 1
Death had been unconscious for several months, and the Vytal Festival Tournament went off without a hitch. The actions of Death's allies, with the assist from Hazel, had allowed them to take down Salem's henchmen and the Bloody Fang.
Lenore was captured alive and imprisoned for her crimes, while Aiden and Anastasia both lost their lives, with May Zedong unexpectedly inheriting the powers of the Summer Maiden, thanks to Ebony, which Death had left in her possession. Also thanks to her having received what amounted to immortality from from Death, considering that she had suffered what should have been a fatal injury and lived, thus proving Death's concern for her safety to be well-founded.
The Team that ended up winning in the Vytal Festival was Team FAMS. With Death incapacitated, his siblings were able to participate, but were knocked out right before entering the doubles stage by Team RWBY, due to having one fewer people and Team RWBY essentially having infinite aura but in the finals, when it was Neo versus Ruby, they ceased to have that advantage and in the end Neo won not by lowering Ruby's aura, but by managing to force her out of the ring.
Ruby did, however, put up one hell of an amazing fight.
Team BRNZ made it a decent distance but when the leader removed May from the Doubles Round onward, it was natural that they swiftly thereafter lost to Team JNPR. They might have won if May were in the battle, but May's 'leader' refused, in spite of her incredible growth since she started dating Death.
Pyrrha lasted until the semi-finals round and lost to Neo just before she would go on to beat Ruby.
Because May wasn't in the doubles round onward, the top four teams were all from Beacon, with the one Ruby beat in the semi-finals being Velvet, representing Team CFVY, though Velvet had not wanted to use her arsenal. While they had no reason to believe that there would be an attack, she had still decided to assume that there would be and thus prioritized having as much as possible at her disposal, a decision that she would come to appreciate.
During the award Ceremony, while there was a festive atmosphere and everyone seemed happy, an alert siren went off "Warning : Incoming Grimm Attack. Threat Level 16. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner." a computerized voice spoke, and everyone started panicking in the arena.
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POV May Zedong
She had been seated in the audience of Amity Arena alongside Amber, when that warning rang out "Sixteen? I thought the scale only went up to fifteen" she seemed genuinely shocked.
"It means....Salem came herself..." Amber told May, shuddering "Death...we need you."
May couldn't help but agree with Amber "This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Ladies and gentlemen." Ironwood's voice came over the intercom "Please, there is no need to panic."
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POV Nebula Violette
After being removed from the Vytal Festival Tournament, rather then waiting around and watching the tournament from the arena, Nebula brought her team back to Beacon Academy with the intent to watch the broadcast from their dormitory room. Among her teammates, no one complained, not even Gwen.
Gwen had tried frequently associating with the friends of the boy named Death, who disappeared months ago. All that Gwen had learned was that he was incapacitated after striking a devastating blow of some kind against the Creatures of Grimm. He would recover in time, and suffered no long-term debilitation, but that hadn't exactly been satisfying for Gwen.
Where she had initially thought that Gwen saw him as a friend, Nebula now realized otherwise. Gwen appeared to have a more romantic interest in him.
Nebula respected Death for saving Gwen when she was younger, but obviously it didn't extend to a romantic interest, given that she preferred women, but she understood Gwen well enough, he had neatly stepped into the role of hero, or knight in shining armor for Gwen.
Nebula never personally understood the appeal of such a trope, but knew that many women and girls seemed to like it. It was almost hard to believe that Gwen had not even recognized the guy when they arrived at Beacon.
Since her and Dew could not understand Gwen's feelings, even though they had wanted too, she had asked Octavia to be there for Gwen, and she agreed. Octavia and Gwen had started out as friends, but they had grown closer in the past few month, and were finally like sisters.
Nebula and Dew had become extremely close after becoming partners, much more intimate then just 'friends', but Octavia and Gwen, it appeared, had ended up needing a little nudge to reach the same point.
No, they were not lovers, like her and Dew, but Nebula had no doubt that they were just as close, and that made Nebula a happy leader. Their Teamwork had soared to new heights in the past few months, and they likely won a few fights in the tournament that they would have lost, or at least had a much more difficult time with, before their growth as a team.
They watched the end of the tournament together and then during the Award Ceremony, while there was a festive atmosphere and everyone seemed happy, an alert siren went off in the arena and at Beacon "Warning : Incoming Grimm Attack. Threat Level 16. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner." a computerized voice spoke, and everyone started panicking in the arena.
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POV Death
Death finally awakened and heard the warning Siren going on, even down in the vault.
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Hidden Quest Completed : Break through the level cap
Your level has surpassed 255, and now exceeds Ozpin's level.
Reward : 1,000,000 exp, System Upgrade, Parallel Thought Skill Tree
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The appearance of that alert interested Death, but he decided to check out this Parallel Thought thing as he went, and he created a Gate to Beacon, since he had no idea how much time had passed, but he recalled what the One-Above-All said about him awakening during Salem's attack.
When he emerged from the gate it the Beacon Courtyard, he spotted a giant whale Grimm about to land nearby. He created twenty avatars, his maximum, and looked at the Parallel Thought skill tree and found that he had two ranks in it by default, indicating that he could manage 4 extra thought processes at once without reducing his combat strength. He immediately spent 8 skill points and increased the number of extra thought processes to 20, so that he could control all of his avatars.
Death sent his body doubles to start searching for anyone in need, as well as to kill Grimm, while he began doing the other thing that the One-Above-All told him to do, and used Gigai Creation to convert aura and form an artificial body, on a whim deciding to make it look like Ozpin.
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Hidden Quest Completed : Create a Gigai
You created your first Gigai.
Reward : 25,000 exp, Soul Magic Skill Tree.
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Death checked out the Soul Magic Skill Tree and spent one Skill point to activate it and found two spells available that he could learn, which was different then the other magics he unlocked, that had no spells by default.
Trusting One-Above-All, Death spent one skill point on each spell, and he felt intrinsic knowledge of them enter his mind. They were called 'Simulacrum' and 'Soul Capture'. Death looked at the Ozpin Gigai, and grinned, using Simulacrum to create a ghost-like 'clone' of himself, and he followed that up with casting Soul Capture on the Simulacrum and putting the artificial soul/simulacrum inside of the Gigai.
Seeing that it Worked, Death grinned and started creating more Gigai's and Simulacrums, with the new Gigai's being in his image, and put the Simulacrums in each of them. He innately understood that these simulacrums could not use his semblances, but did have his other skills, so they could spawn a fodder army.
Unfortunately, Simulacrum's were fodder, and would only last a few hours before burning up, and they would take the gigai that they were bound too with them into destruction, but as soon as he realized this, so did his body doubles, and though they were scattered all over, each of them started spawning gigai's and simulacrums, and sent them out to slay grimm and save citizens. Death wanted to save those he loved, but he had no idea where they were, so he needed to be able to spread out as much and as far as possible, and this method was the best way to do so.
While his gigai couldn't use his semblances, they could use anything in his skill trees, and while he didn't have to actively control them, he could order them around with a thought and they were completely loyal! Spray and pray was suddenly seeming like the best way to describe this strategy.
"Octavia!" Death suddenly heard a familiar voice off in the distance, it was a voice he recognized.
While she was not one of his lovers, Death knew that she had a soft spot for him, and knew that she might end up as his lover eventually. Even if that was not the case, though, he had to try to save people!
The ground trembled as the giant Whale landed off in the distance, crushing many buildings underneath it's weight. It might not be able to create Grimm anymore, but it was able to reap a lot of lives with just it's massive size.
Death didn't have the firepower to take out Monstra, though, so he decided to prioritize saving lives and killing smaller Grimm, so he rushed towards where he had heard Gwen's voice, and found her about to be killed by a hound! It was smaller then the one he had seen in Volume 8, but unmistakably the same species.
Death used Teleport Slash and swiftly killed the creature before surveying the scene. Gwen had her Aura shattered, but was otherwise fine. Her Teammates were nearby, with Nebula and Octavia in bad shape, though with his semblance he could save them, Dew Gahl, however, there was no saving her. The poor girl had her head crushed.
Maybe he could save her if she had just died, but he felt her soul was outside of her body, and he had no method to get it back in. If he could see her soul like a shinigami from Bleach, then he could use soul capture and force it back into her body, but he did not have that power yet.
There was no time to mourn, though. All he could do was save those that could be saved, so he went to get between the injured Nebula and Octavia, and held one of each of their hands while using his semblance, chasing away the Grimm Reaper that would have seized their lives had he arrived even a minute later.
Of course, had he arrived a minute later, they would have likely been finished off by the hound, after it had killed Gwen.
Gwen, who had got up, came over to Death as he was healing the other two, and hugged him while shedding tears
Hidden Quest : Love (Repeatable)
One of the following conditions must be met:
Make Ruby Rose give herself heart, body, and soul to you. (Completed)
Make Weiss Schnee give herself heart, body, and soul to you. (Completed)
Make Blake Belladonna give herself heart, body, and soul to you. (Completed)
Make Yang Xiao Long give herself heart, body, and soul to you. (Completed)
...
Make Nebula Violette give herself heart, body, and soul to you. (Completed)
...
Make Salem give herself heart, body, and soul to you.
Make Ultear Milkovich give herself heart, body, and soul to you.
Reward : 10,000 Shop Points
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Death was stunned when he got that notification, indicating that Nebula had bonded with him, and it was followed immediately afterwards with two more for Octavia Ember and Gwen Darcy. This was the first time he managed to bind others to him without relying upen exhausting them with sex..
He deduced that the Hound, having exhausted them physically and mentally, somehow caused this, but what mattered to him is that they'd be safe. The second they bonded with him, he had an interest in each of their happiness, rather then that of just Gwen that he had before.
"Your aura should be fine now, Gwen. I should resume summoning more allies to save more people. I'm sorry I wasn't able to save Dew. I can heal, but can't resurrect the dead once a soul leaves it's body." Death apologized, letting go of Octavia and Nebula's hands once their aura's were replenished and giving Gwen a firm hug.
"Where have you been?" Gwen asked with a pout.
"I was in a coma. I used a ritual that prevents the Grimm from ever repopulating. In other words, there is a finite number of them now. Seems that the Grimm Queen, Salem, has gotten desperate about trying to kill me and undo the ritual I did." Death explained to Gwen "We were planning to strike her and kill her once and for all once I recovered, but it seems that she acted first. Been patient for tens of thousands of years, and now this? No one could have foreseen this." Death did not anticipate his friends and allies so effectively dealing with Salem's remaining allies before he woke up. If he had known what they would do, he may have considered this possibility, though it still seemed incredibly fast for it to happen, even then.
That revelation shocked Gwen, who had no idea that Salem even existed "So she's like a rabid dog, backed into a corner and lashing out?"
"Yes. While lashing out is not unexpected, she has acted patiently for tens of thousands or years, biding her time. Even though we could have expected a backlash eventually, we all figured it would take years or even decades for her to prepare, not a couple months. More must have happened while I was in a coma that forced her hand."
With reluctance, Gwen let her arms drop to her sides, but not before she gave Death a chaste kiss on the lips "I should have told you long ago, but I started falling for you after I realized what you did for me all those years ago." she confessed.
Death nodded "We can discuss our relationship after we survive today and deal with Salem." he then started to resume creating and combining Simulacrums and Gigai and sending them out to help people and evacuate them to the Vault in Mistral. The relic of knowledge was long since safely hidden in Death's inventory, so there was no threat of them finding that, even if they dared to leave the oasis.
The people evacuated to there would have everything that they needed to survive for a couple days at least, so that he could minimize the number of lives lost.
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POV Malachite Twins
They had been working at Juniors Club when the warning alarms rang out and everyone started freaking out. The twins had never even heard of a level 16 threat level, but knew it was dire. After helping Junior and the staff of the club evacuate into the basement shelter, Melanie and Miltia decided to step outside and take a look, but when they looked outside, an immense shadow was above them.
The Whale-like grimm was about to land, and they had no time to flee. Melanie and Miltia raced towards the clubs basement, but didn't make it as their section of town was crushed. After an instant of pain, both Melanie and Miltia felt nothing. They did not die, thanks to their connection to Death, which kept them alive as long as he lived, but they could not put themselves back together with the massive Grimm still on top of them.
Even if they had made it to the basement, though, that still collapsed as well, killing everyone inside, including three young Huntsmen-In-Training from Shade that had been chatting with Junior before this disaster struck.
Brawnz Ni, Roy Stallion, and Nolan Porfirio met their end hiding in a basement, but managed to keep their bodies somewhat in tact, unlike many that were trapped above ground who were turned to paste.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone