章 1078: 20
Chapter 19- Forever Fall part II
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"I trust your new modifications are desirable?" the dark witch Salem asked calmly to her 'guest of honor.' Said 'guest' was a dark cloaked monstrosity with horns and bone wings protruding from its back. Its face was covered by a grotesque white mask with red veins flowing across the ivory face. Long, spindly arms with massive bone claw fingers reached up to the mask and racked across it, leaving massive gashes in the bone.
'They will suffice…for now,' the being spoke through a mental connection with the pale skinned witch. She smiled at it.
"I am glad we could reach an agreement," the Mistress of all Grimm said. "I look forward to working with you and your kin…Zoufalstvi." Zoufalstvi tilted his head to the side and regarded Salem. He released a low, screeching hiss.
'You may have our oath to aid you, but be forewarned,' the cloaked creature intoned. 'You are still descended from one of our greatest enemies. And when the time comes, we shall gladly end you for the sake of our vengeance.'
Salem let an evil smile grace her lips. "I'd expect nothing less from your kind, Zoufalstvi," she said. "But perhaps, we can cut my death out of the picture if I were to…gift you…with the descendants of your other greatest enemies."
The monstrous being let out something akin to a hum. 'Truly, you are a demon wearing flesh,' he croaked out. 'I shall think on your proposal, daughter of our smartest enemy, but be not shocked should I reject it. Remember, though your soul has been lost long ago, my kind is far older than you. We have more than one way to obtain that which we seek.' He began floating away from the dark witch before leaving the room. Salem watched him leave apathetically.
"Is it truly wise to work with such…demented beings, Miss Salem?" a refined voice called from behind her. She turned to see her most trusted sitting at a large table. The speaker was a distinguished man named Author Watts.
Salem chuckled in amusement. "Demented they may be, Watts, they have their uses, which will prove pivotal in our future operations," she explained.
"Mistress, I must protest your use of…them," Cinder hissed out, "in any function. Dementors cannot be trusted."
"Oh, yes. I had forgotten you once lived in the world they came from," Watts commented. "Didn't you mention they were used as guards of a prison or something?"
"Azkaban," Cinder explained. "They were found on the island and the Ministry of Magic, in their infinite wisdom, brokered a deal with them to be the wardens of a prison they wished to build there. Naively believing they would be content with tormenting the prisoners sent there." She shook her head in disgust. "Fools, the lot of them. I'm glad to be rid of that place."
An insane laugh erupted from Cinder's side. "Well, I'm sure our goddess is pleased to hear it!" came the mocking reply of Tyrian Callows. Cinder narrowed her eyes at the mad man.
"Mock me all you want, but my prior interests in that world arrived on Remnant roughly two years ago, Tyrian," she stated coldly. "And as far as I'm concerned, Britain's wizarding society can burn in the blackened hell it has created for itself."
"Ooooooh! So cold!" Tyrian cackled madly, furthering Cinder's ire for the man.
"That reminds me, when do you intend to invite this Harry Potter into our midst?" Watts asked, adjusting his monocle. "I, myself, have heard great things about him and after personally meeting the boy once at one of the Schnee family's social gatherings, I believe you were correct in regards to him." The doctor chuckled. "The boy is quite powerful. A valuable asset for our cause."
The man to Watt's right grunted. He was Hazel Rainart. "I, too, have met this boy, albeit in combat," he said in his low, deep baritone. "I'd wager he's on par with your son, Cinder. Perhaps, even more so."
"The child holds back so much anger!" Tyrian cackled. "So much…madness! Such fury that I'm surprised he's not more like me by now! The way he deposed of the members of the White Fang during their siege of the Schnee manor was…" He laughed eerily. "Magnificent!"
Salem smiled at the exchanges. She was glad all her most trusted were on the same page for once. "I am also curious as to when you intend to approach the young man with your invitation," she commented.
"I'm hoping to convince him to join sometime close the Vytal tournament," Cinder explained. "That way, by the time Ozpin and his group know he's on our side, it will be too late." Watts nodded in approval.
"A most astute plan," the doctor praised. "However, what is the guarantee he'll join?" Cinder gave her rival a smug smirk in response.
"I have something he wants…more than anything else in the entire world," she said, her smug look never faltering.
Watts was reminded, once again, why he despised this woman. "How can you be so sure of that?" he asked, though it came out more like a demand.
Cinder's smug smirk just widened. "Call it a…mother's intuition," she said in amusement, further irritating Watts and making Tyrian laugh loudly.
"Enough, you two," Salem snapped calmly. The two broke their stares at each other. "Onto other matters; Watts, how fares our project?"
Watts smiled widely. "It's coming along nicely, Miss Salem," he said, his smile rather dark now. "I suspect it will be ready for an alpha test around the time we begin preparing for the siege of Haven."
Salem smiled sinisterly. "Excellent! That is better than what I was expecting!"
Watts chuckled. "The credit, much to my chagrin, must go to Cinder, and the magic from Britain she wields," he said.
"What was that, Watts? I didn't quite hear you. Could you perhaps speak up?" Cinder asked, a vindictive smile on her face.
"Not on your life, woman," Watts countered viciously.
"In any case," Salem called out, regaining attention. "Is there anything else that needs to be said?"
"Actually, Mistress," Cinder said, turning to the white haired witch. "I recently discovered that Summer Rose is still alive."
Immediately she had everyone's attention. "Impossible!" Tyrian snarled at her. Cinder simply pulled out her Scroll and sent the videos of Summer to the others'. The three pulled out their Scrolls and Salem, being closer to Watts, watched them his shoulder.
Hazel hummed in interest. "So, she has eluded the Death Eaters for nearly eleven years," he mused. "An astounding feat."
"Truly," Watts agreed reluctantly. "However, this means we have an awakened Silver eyed Warrior to worry about."
"Not necessarily," Cinder said with a grin. "Summer has one weakness we can exploit." She sent them a picture of Ruby Rose, and everyone examined it. "I've fought the girl before. She has not awakened her power as of yet."
Salem mulled over all the information they had at the moment. "Who is the girl?" she asked.
"Summer's daughter."
Salem smiled darkly. "I see. That is helpful news." Tyrian laughed loudly.
"So that's the plan?! Nab the girl and hold her against the silver eyed bitch, huh?!" the mad man asked eagerly.
"No," Salem told him firmly. "Both of them are currently at Beacon, and making a move against either would be detrimental to our plans right now." Tyrian sulked at that.
"But letting her run around, we run the risk of her power awakening," Watts warned. "And with Summer Rose as her mother, she would become a problem later."
"True, but trying to obtain her at this moment, we would risk awakening her power sooner. Remember, Watts, their power is awakened during times of extreme duress," Salem reminded him.
"Then what should we do?" Hazel asked.
"We stick to our plans for now," Salem instructed. "Currently, we can do nothing about Summer Rose or her daughter, so we will need to leave them be for the moment." The others looked uneasy at leaving her be, but they didn't argue with her. They nodded to her. She nodded and smiled.
"Excellent."
Forever Fall, Vale; 12:02 P.M.
Cardin had finally removed himself from his 'partner' for the day, and was on his way to searching for his targets. Soon, they'd be incapacitated and he'd be back on the fast track to being the big man on campus.
The main problem before then was, of course, finding them. The Forever Fall forest was rather expansive, and he knew he may not actually see them before it was time to head back to Beacon.
But he was feeling lucky today. Today his luck would change. Today, he'd get his revenge.
He continued on for a while until he came across a small cluster of bluish-purple flowers. Unbidden, memories of a long haired woman smiling at him assaulted his waking mind. He shook the memories away. He couldn't think of her. She was dead. Thinking of the dead was weakness. He couldn't afford to be weak.
"No way! A whole field of night waver flowers?! Ooh, Maka's gonna love this!" a voice exclaimed from his right side. Several feet away was one Lily Nightingale admiring the flowers. He grinned darkly and put his duffle bag on the ground.
"Night waver flowers? Never heard of them," another voice called out, and Cardin's grin nearly split his face as Jaune came into view.
"I'm not surprised. Night wavers are only native to Forever Fall," Lily explained. "They're some of the most beautiful flowers known."
"But why are they called night wavers?" Jaune asked.
"Because when the night gives way to day, these beauties shine in the morning light, giving them a sort of 'wavering' look to them as they adjust to the light."
Cardin pulled out the metal box holding the bullet hornets and set in on the ground.
"Oh. So, this Maka you mentioned loves them?"
"Yep! She's my sister and these flowers are her favorites. A few of these, and her collection will be…"
She was interrupted when the ground suddenly shook dangerously and shattered violently. The three in the area screamed in shock as they were thrust to the ground. "W-What the hell?!" Jaune exclaimed.
No one had time to think about what had just happened, because the ground shook once again, and this time, a large area around the three had opened up into a sink hole. Cardin, Lily, and Jaune only had time to scream in terror as they plummeted into the darkened cave below.
Cardin, in particular, only saw a bubbling black goo before the world around him went black.
Moments earlier with Harry and Velvet
"..And that's the last of it!" Harry sighed in satisfaction, wiping his brow of sweat. Velvet leaned against a tree to rest.
"Do you think she meant to give us the second largest amount of sap to collect?" the bunny Faunus asked.
"From what I've seen of her so far, I'd say it's a safe bet to say yes," the Potter heir mumbled in annoyance, scrolling through his Scroll. "But onto more interesting matters…" He turned to Velvet and grinned. "You wanna help me with a project?" Velvet involuntarily stiffened.
"A-A project?" she asked. Harry nodded his head like a child that was told Christmas had come on his birthday.
"Yeah! Whitley, Weiss's brother, and I have found some clusters of unidentified energy all around the world, and he claims he's found another here in Forever Fall, and wants me to investigate," the wolf Faunus explained. "I was going to do this with my team, but then Summer did this partner exchange thingy on us, and split us up. So what do ya say?"
Velvet calmed down a bit after hearing his explanation, but was still wary. "Is it dangerous?" she asked apprehensively.
"The energy? Maybe. The time to find it? Well, only if we run into Grimm. But I'm sure we could bring down any Grimm we come across in this forest," Harry said.
Velvet thought about it for a moment. They were pretty good on time, as far as to when Summer told them to regroup. And she supposed there was no harm in looking for this 'energy source.' It might even help her better understand the Faunus in front of her.
"Sure," she answered with a smile. "I don't mind helping."
Harry smiled widely. "Great!" He found the triangulation app that Whitley mentioned and activated it, and a screen similar to a sonar screen appeared on his Scroll. He left the app on and called Whitley. "Yo, Whit! I've activated that triangulation app. Now, can you get me a starting point to find that energy you detected?" he asked, using 'energy' instead of magic to let his current partner in crime know he was with someone not in the know.
Fortunately, Whitley understood. "Yeah, saw it when you booted it up," he responded as his youthful face appeared on the screen. "It appears the strongest point of the signal is coming from receiver 23."
"Receiver 23? That's the one near the cliff," Harry responded with a frown. He looked over his shoulder, and Velvet followed his gaze. "We're actually right next to the cliff actually…"
"Aannnnddd…" Whitley drawled out uneasily. "That's where I'm confused." The two Faunus stared at him. "You see…The readings are coming from right on top of the receiver. So, either my receiver was damaged or…"
"It's below the surface," Harry finished, frowning. "That's disappointing."
Velvet, however, frowned thoughtfully. "Wait…you said the receiver was near a cliff, right?" she asked. Harry nodded. "Well, I'm not sure if I'm just guessing or not, but what if there's a cave in the cliff face?"
Both Harry and Whitley stared at her, impressed. "It's possible," Whitley admitted. "The area under receiver 23 is known as 'Bone Valley,' aptly named for the countless bones of human, Faunus, and animals that litter the ground and rocks at the entrance. Reports state that a powerful Grimm possibly resides in the area, and the Vale Council has labeled the place off limits. Because of that, there's no official map of the area." Harry raised an eyebrow.
"'Possibly?'" he repeated. Velvet frowned as well.
"How can they not know?" she asked.
"Reports are sketchy, at best, and most teams sent in their either are too shaken up to talk or too dead to speak," Whitley explained. "Not to mention, it's usually foggy as all hell, and some have likened it to the entrance of Hushed Peak."
"Horror games and your morbid humor aside, what do you suggest we do then Whit?" Harry asked. "Because in all honesty, all I really wanna do right now is check it out." He looked to his companion and asked, "What do you think we should do?"
Velvet thought about the question as she listened to Whitley speak. "Personally, I say you guys go for it. At the current moment, you're in the area, and this is the best readings we've got in the past two years. Plus, if you do catch sight of this 'powerful Grimm' you can easily get out."
"You have that much faith that we can?" Velvet asked. "And you don't sound very concerned about the Grimm."
Whitley shrugged. "You're with Harry," he said simply. "Harry's good at getting out of bad situations. I'm confident in his skills. As for the Grimm, well…I'm not even sure this 'Grimm' is a Grimm at all, to be honest. From some photos of the area I took with the help of a drone, I firmly believe the area is swampy and most likely if any Grimm did enter the area, they would sink into the numerous bogs around the area. The fog in conjunction with the bogs and some poisonous vapers I've detected from thermal imaging of the area leads me to believe that the Bone Valley legend is just that…a legend."
Velvet was very impressed with Whitley's insight and observation of the area. "So you think there's no Grimm in that area?" she asked.
"None that are worthy of being called 'powerful,'" the Schnee male answered. "If anything, it might be an Ursa Major or an Alpha Beowolf. Nothing two experienced hunters like yourselves can't handle."
Velvet frowned again as she thought about what to do. Of course, going into an area marked as off limits because of a Grimm was not something on her list of things to do, but the Schnee did put up a good argument. It also didn't help that she was now curious herself as to what this energy was, and to see if Whitley's predictions were true or not.
Plus, she might even get some good photos out of the deal.
"W-Well, I suppose I'm already invested," she mumbled. She looked to Harry and smiled hesitantly. "Let's go and investigate Bone Valley."
Harry smiled. "I like your way of thinking, Velvet!" he said happily.
With that, the two made their way to the cliff, unknowing of the terror that awaited them.
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