Chapitre 36: Final Showdown
POV Ultear Milkovich
Accompanying General Ironwood, the three maidens, and Uriel, they had finally come into like of sight of the face of the whale grimm "Wait." she announced "Professor Ozpin and Team STRQ will be arriving in about 30 seconds, and 45 seconds after that, Death and the survivors of Team NDGO will be arriving."
Ironwood frowned, understanding by the word 'survivors' that one or two of the girls on that team had passed away, which he naturally did not like hearing. Ironwood valued human and faunus life above all else, which was why, as much as possible, he tried to remove humans and faunus from the battlefield.
"We will wait" Ironwood agreed.
During the trip this far, they had seen Death many times, but Ultear had said that they were all creations of his magic and were assigned to save lives and take civilians to safety, so communicating with them was pointless. Maybe if Death had taken his time to give them more complicated instructions, it would be useful, but at this time Death was aiming for numbers to save as many lives as possible.
Ironwood understood that logic, and just told Ultear to let him know when they met one that could actually speak, and that had not happened until now..
"Hello Oz." Ironwood said as soon as he saw the Headmaster and Team STRQ arriving.
"Welcome James." Ozpin greeted him "I'm glad to see you joined us. Shall we do this?"
"Death will be here soon." Ultear told Ozpin "The real one, not the pawns he made with his newly awakened soul magic to help people."
"Explains why he wasn't talking to us." Tai noted.
"Yeah, they were given simple instructions so that he could make more of them. They are tasked with finding and saving civilians. Ultear explained "He has sent them inside the Vault of the Relic of Knowledge. By the way, he has muttered a lot about how stupid he was to not create a gate connection inside the Vault of the relic of Creation. Apparently if he could have gotten to the relic, he could have easily resolved things the moment he woke up."
"Is that so? Do you know why he didn't do that?" Ironwood asked.
"He created the one on the vault of Knowledge after Lionheart's betrayal, basically he wasn't sure how safe the relic would be there, so he planned to secretly remove the relic of knowledge and put it in a safe place, at least until the security of the Vault of Knowledge could be guaranteed." Ultear told Ironwood "He had no trust issues with you protecting the vault of creation, so creating a gate to let him enter at will never even occurred to him. It just so happens that the best place he could think to send everyone away was the lone vault that he had access too."
"I see. I can understand that then. It's a shame that he couldn't reach the relic of creation then, but what's done is done. Lets focus on saving who can be saved." Ironwood insisted "That means killing Salem and ridding Remnant of her menace once and for all."
Death, Nebula, Gale, and Octavia then came running around a corner, and just like that the three separate groups had gathered.
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POV Salem
It wasn't supposed to be like this. All of her hounds were now dead, and the grimm army was very quickly dying off. By her calculation there was about 3000 copies of the pest known as Death saving people and killing her minions. How could one man be in so many places at once?
Suddenly, she saw someone enter her throne room inside the whale Grimm, and she looked shocked "Why are YOU here? Shouldn't you be dead?!"
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POV Death
As the group rushed at the Whale, Ozpin took the lead and readied his cane to unleash a monumental burst of kinetic energy, to kill the Whale Grimm and hopefully take out Salem at the same time.
If they took their time to 'search' inside the whale, it could lift into the air and crush other parts of vale, Where more people might still be hidden. Ozpin concluded that this was the best way to deal with the Whale, and hopefully Salem at the same time.
It was not a bad idea to deal with the whale, but without someone like Hazel subduing her, she would obviously be able to protect herself. Still, he couldn't fault Ozpin for the plan to minimize lives lost and property damage..
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POV Gwen Darcy
Everyone in the group stayed back a bit and shut and covered their eyes tight before the explosion, as well as putting on noise-cancelling ear equipment, but even so they both heard and felt the immense explosion.
When she opened her eyes she was relieved that the Whale was dead, but the pissed off looking woman that appeared before them was not happy at all. The woman was Salem, only her expression looked like that of a rabid dog, with no discernable intelligence.
She didn't look anything like the cunning schemer they had been expecting.
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POV Raven Branwen
Seeing what Salem had been reduced too truly satisfied Raven. Salem had haunted her dreams for 20 years, though she would never admit it out loud. It felt good to finally have the power to strike back against this monster.
As someone that hated being afraid more then just about anything, Raven wanted Salem to die more then anything and to remove her threat forevermore, so that she would never have to be afraid of her ever again!
Oh, if she sensed Yang in danger she would leave in a heartbeat, but other then that, she would make damn sure to exterminate Salem with extreme prejudice.
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POV Ruby Rose
It was a difficult fight, but the last wave of Grimm that had ganged up on her and her Teammates was finally beaten, and she was able to relax for a moment, but even that was interrupted by the sound of clapping.
She turned towards the sound and saw Death standing there and smiling at the four of them. Ruby immediately burst into rose petals and used her semblance to super-speed her way the 40 feet or so to him before reassembling herself mid-air with her arms spread out and falling a couple feet to wrap her arms around Death's neck and kiss him passionately.
"Oh Oum, I've missed you so much" Ruby said with a pout after parting from the kiss.
This was, of course, one of Death's avatars, meaning he was essentially seeing, hearing, feeling and everything through it, so the true Death and all his body doubles were truly touched emotionally by the tears that Ruby shed in her happiness and because of how adorkable she was.
"I love you too, my adorkable little Ruby." Death said with a chuckle "It is nice to finally be out of bed, though I wish the circumstances were better. Oh, close your eyes tight. Big explosion about to happen" he warned the girls and they all did as instructed. This was the moment that Ozpin had destroyed Monstra, the whale grimm, and the immense light was accompanied by a very loud explosion, though at least they were fairly far away from it.
Ruby gripped Death tighter as she heard the boom, and Death chose that moment to grab her ass with both hands and give her cheeks there a light squeeze.
Ruby let out a cute as hell squeak and her cheeks became flushed with embarrassment when she opened her eyes and met Death's gaze with her own. "When this mess is over, you'll take responsibility for making me so damn horny" she pouted out in demand.
Death chuckled and nodded "I understand Ruby. That will certainly be fun, though once this situation is resolved, I'll be ready to discuss having children."
Hearing Death say that Ruby buried her face in his neck to hide her embarrassment. She hadn't expected that talk to happen so soon. She knew she wanted to have children with him, but hadn't mentally prepared for the idea of getting pregnant this young.
"Don't worry, I wont ask you to have children before you are ready, I just didn't want to have children until Salem was no longer a threat, especially if some of my children might be silver-eyed warriors. After today, they can have far better and safer lives." Death insisted "I felt it responsible to not even going to consider having children until the Salem matter was resolved since I knew it would happen in my lifetime."
"I may need a few years to be mentally prepared for being a mother." Ruby admitted whilr still hiding her face in his neck.
"That's fine, there's no rush." Death insisted. "We literally have eternity together after all."
"About that..." Ruby hesitated "What about mom and dad?" she obviously wasn't happy about just letting them die.
"While I can't do it for everyone, I will eventually offer to create a gigai for them. They are artificial bodies and wont age like a normal body will, but they can't have children either, so obviously they'll have to give up on having children again if I create a body like that for them." Death explained to her "We can discuss that later though. They have lots of time left after all."
Death let go of Ruby and went over to greet Weiss, Yang, and Blake by grabbing their butts as well and kissing them passionately just like he kissed Ruby. The citizens had already been evacuated so he had no qualm against being affectionate with his four lovers here.
After finishing Blake's kiss, Death lightly blew into one of her cat ears which made her blush even though the kiss and grabbing her butt did not do that "The residents of Vale have been safely evacuated, there are very few Grimm left and my simulacrum's will finish them. You ladies can finally relax and be proud of how hard you worked. Lets go to Beacon"
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POV Summer Rose
They had been fighting Salem for a while, and something seemed really off. Why was it like fighting a rabid dog? Sure, they had backed her into a corner, but she was not fighting smart at all. Sure, they had not managed to land any lethal blows yet, but the number of minor injuries she was accruing over time was just becoming more and more.
As Salem prepared to launch another powerful spell, Summer used her silver eyes again to harm her further as well as to interrupt her magic.
Ozpin had stated that despite the power of her eyes, Salem would likely endure the attack if Summer went all out, so on the way here he had advised her to use her eyes sparingly, only to interrupt Salem's magic when she used that.
This plan had been working out well, but Summer just couldn't shake the fact that something was wrong here. Salem was like a berserker who sometimes tried to chuck spells, and she couldn't even speak or formulate a plan. What happened to the old schemer?
She was certainly putting up a fight, but not much of one, in spite of her incredibly superior attributes.
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POV Ozpin
Ozpin had also noticed the problem, but unlike Summer, he had already discerned the route cause of Salem's unusual behavior and her lack of rationality. While he knew what had happened to her, he did not know how it happened or why. He only knew that this only helped their chances to defeat her, so why wouldn't he just take advantage of her condition now?
Salem had hurt too many people, so he knew that she had to be stopped. Deep down a part of him still loved her, but he had to think about what was best for Remnant, and that meant getting rid of this threat.
Even if she lacked her intelligence, making the fight more manageable then it would have been otherwise, she was still extremely dangerous and he was glad that everyone was sticking to their plan.
Having three maidens and two silver-eyed warriors, with Salem already in this pathetic state meant that their victory was inevitable. Salem might draw out the battle for a long time, but in the end she would die.
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POV Salem (Before Monstra was destroyed)
It wasn't supposed to be like this. All of her hounds were now dead, and the grimm army was very quickly dying off. By her calculation there was about 3000 copies of the pest known as death saving people and killing her minions. How could one man be in so many places at once?
Suddenly, she saw someone enter her throne room inside the whale Grimm, and she looked shocked "Why are YOU here? Shouldn't you be dead?!"
The man that appeared had golden hair with fiery red highlights "Salem, that's a moronic question. Do you think that the brother gods, when they punished humans, would truly go as far as to kill the divine beasts? What wrong did my kin and I commit?" the man asked her, seeming disgusted that she thought he was dead "No, the brother gods merely dispersed our power, likely planning to reform us when they came back. I just happened to get a little assistance in reforming myself sooner. That being said, being disassembled was not fun at all. I'd have just burnt you to ash for the inconvenience, but my master has other plans for you"
The person entering behind the self-proclaimed 'divine beast' was none other then Death, or one of his avatars, rather, accompanied by 20 simulacrums in gigai. "Surrender quietly and make it easy on yourself" Death demanded, preparing to cast a spell.
Death saw her preparing to attack and with a single gesture sent the simulacrum's to swarm her. The moment three of his Simulacrum's had Salem momentarily immobile, Death cast a spell, which struck Salem and ripped her soul out of her body, capturing it in a gigai that he had just created, making it look like a baby girl with blond her and blue eyes, a younger version of her uncorrupted human body.
The body he had given her could neither use magic nor aura unless he decided to give it the power, and the power that he gave he could take away, meaning that she was not a threat in her current state. Even if she somehow retained her memory by the time she grew up, she couldn't do much about it, and this way perhaps he could find a way to purify her true body of the taint of the Grimm. All he had to do was collect it now that it was empty.
That was what he believed, at least, but contrary to expectations, the body did not collapse with her soul remained, but rather became like a rabid beast!
While the Simulacrum's were fighting the now soulless Salem, Death passed little baby Salem to the divine beast in human form "Jīnwū, take her to safety." Death opened a gate and let Jīnwū depart through it before turning his attention back towards Salem.
Rabid Salem had already killed 17 of the 20 simulacrums and Death's avatar charged in to join the fight, which had lasted for about five minutes before Ozpin launched his kinetic energy attack.
The present avatar and simulacrums were all disintegrated in the attack, while Salem managed to get a powerful shield up instinctively just before it happened.
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POV Death
Thinking that the battle had gone on long enough, Death retreated a bit to May's side and placed a hand on her shoulder "Lets finish this with your eyes. I'll continuously recharge you so no need to hold back."
May, who had been wielding Ebony and Ivory, nodded to Death. In spite of harassing Salem, May had not scored any good hits on her with the revolvers because of her defensive magic, so May was fine with trying something a bit different.
She had a bit more luck with her magic, but she still wasn't nearly as good at controlling it as Amber and Neo were, so she would be happy to contribute with her eyes.
May put the revolvers into a pair of holsters then nodded to Death to indicate that she was ready. Death nodded and picked may up in a bridal carry "Start now"
May was a bit embarrassed, but did as Death instructed, and as soon as her eyes activated, Death activated teleport slash and appeared directly behind 'Salem' while doing as he said, continually concentrating on recharging May so that she could use her eyes for much longer, which ended up being just over 20 seconds.
The result as the light faded was the badly burnt and no longer moving body of Salem, no longer recognizable. May realized that her eyes had been much more powerful while she was collaborating with Death.
Death set down May on her feet then knelt to touch Salem's body and put it into his storage, not wanting to to somehow get resurrected before he could return it to a truly human state. That would probably be a greater challenge then purifying her soul, since at least her memories of being evil should fade while being stuck in a babies body.
"How's Vale?" Ozpin asked Death. concerned about the situation.
"I have about 4000 Simulacrum clones clearing out grimm and rescuing people. By now most citizens, except for those that are at Beacon or Amity Coliseum, were safely evacuated. and can be brought back when we have an all clear." Death explained to Ozpin "But for now I need to go check on Melanie and Miltia. Their workplace kind of got crushed, so they may need help escaping the cellar or something." he knew that since he lived they could not die, at least not permanently.
After Ozpin nodded, Death raced towards the former location of Juniors Club, and found two bodies reassembling themselves into the recognizable and very much naked Malachite twins. Death approached and placed a hand on each of their stomachs and started accelerating their regeneration process.
Once it was finished, Death used foodie to create water and began carefully cleaning the unconscious twins before buying them a set of simple clothes from his shop and dressing each of them. He followed that up by creating one avatar, replacing the one that had been destroyed, and the two of them carried the slumbering twins towards Beacon.
Death figured that what they went through was probably pretty traumatic and that he would have to take extra special care to try to spoil them until they were able to recover from the event.
Tomorrow, he would accompany General Ironwood back to Atlas, but tonight he'd do his best to comfort his lovers.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone