Capítulo 1970: 200
It came out of nowhere.
It seemed safe.
An ebb in the flow of grimm attacks as Team RWBYP worked tirelessly and efficiently to keep the walls repaired and sturdy enough to withstand the packs of beasts throwing themselves endlessly against their surfaces in an eternal urge to rip the citizens of Mantle apart.
The people were happy to see them.
They were making a difference, even if it meant having to follow General Ironwood's recommendations on where to go and what missions to take. They protected construction crews who repaired the holes in the walls, made sure the tunnels dug beneath the streets from hordes of Centinels that were native to the region were all filled up- stronger and harder to dig through than before, laced with whatever Dust they could spare in order to keep the concrete and earthworks shored up and sturdy.
Ruby and Penny working together managed to destroy the entire herd of wandering Megoliaths, and the sudden loss of nearly fifty ancient grimm each the size of a ten story building made the grimm around them lose coordination and start ripping each other apart as they tried to establish a new leader amongst the weaklings in the pack and left themselves vulnerable to being ripped apart by the rest of Team RWBYP sweeping them all up in one go.
There were day missions, night missions. There were missions to supervise construction in Atlas, construction in Mantle, there were missions to make sure protests didn't get out of hand. There were missions to clear grimm out of the mines, missions to clear grimm out of the surrounding areas, missions to make sure any flying grimm in the area were annihilated en masse.
It was calm. Safe.
The city was slowly calming down, or so the General thought.
In reality, the protests that Team RWBYP had been sent to keep calm were just the tip of the iceberg- people organizing and shouting to try and make their voices be heard to no avail. In the background, Robyn Hill herself worked against Atlas- taking shipments of nonperishable foods and medical supplies and bringing them to the people instead with the help of her Happy Huntresses. In the background, there was a constant nagging, a simmering resentment against the people that made their way up to that shining city that cast a constant shadow over the people below.
There was a constant feeling of pure, refined, and utter disdain for those in charge of Atlas and Mantle, the sweeping political decisions that made choices without rhyme or reason, all in favor of keeping the upper class fat and happy while the lower classes below toiled away endlessly. Human, faunus. Old, young. Healthy, sick. It didn't matter anymore. The people of Mantle had always felt a certain solidarity with each other- even the richest parts of Mantle couldn't possibly compare to the poorest parts of Atlas, after all, and with how hard General Ironwood was pushing for military spending after military project after military necessity after military action- there were a lot of people that just wanted Atlas gone.
A seething, simmering cauldron of resentment and hatred that bubbled just below the surface, unseen and unheard even as Robyn herself tried to pacify the people and try and work towards reform by getting elected into office.
The election itself was… tense.
There were concerns of voter suppression, of Mantle not being able to have a say despite its larger population and its place as the reason why Atlas could function at all- after all, it wasn't like Atlas' fancy greenhouses could keep it supplied with food forever, nor could it get materials or supplies if Mantle suddenly stopped producing them. In the end, their fears of not having a say had been mostly abated by the time the election actually happened…
Only for Robyn to lose out to Jacques Schnee by an utter landslide.
The surging resentment in the city below grew to a fever pitch- despair, hatred, impotent rage, frustration, disbelief, shock, horror, fear, pain. All those things and more bubbled up and up and up and it was all that Team RWBYP could do in order to keep the immediate spike of grimm activity from swallowing the city whole.
The tide that had backed off from Atlas hadn't been retreating.
It had been like a tsunami- wild and raging and ready to rear back and destroy everything that it touched when it came back around.
Solitas' white plains were dyed inky black with the sound of annihilation and death. The snow vanished beneath an endless tide of howling and baying night creatures, ripping away that pure white protection and leaving nothing but a darkness full of glowing eyes that burned with hatred as though they were seething, bloody coals.
From their own actions above, from their own feelings below. Atlas and Mantle faced the most dire crisis it had ever seen in its entire history of existence- even when the Great War almost destroyed all four Kingdoms from the lingering resentment, nothing like this had ever been seen. Not in thousands of years. And yet… And yet. Thousands of grimm had been unleashed upon the city, and in the end, even Ruby's great power, Penny's lasers, Weiss' Dust, Blake's speed, Yang's strength, there were simply too many grimm.
The five of them, plus the military, plus the Ace Ops, plus the specialists, plus Team CMNE, plus Team CFVY, had all been thrown to the front lines, their weapons singing for ephemeral blood and violence as they threw themselves headlong into the fray, positioning outside of the city and taking on the job of protecting every possible entry point into the city. Bullets ripped through the air en masse, each one having been corrupted and Blackened by Ruby's mass of grimm annihilation to the point that they left burning red streaks through the air as they flew and their explosions blackened the world around them before erupting into slicing red rose petals.
Grimm weapons for a grimm tide, so Ruby herself had said.
Blackened weapons to face the blackened horde.
So they faced the odds.
Eyes forward. Faces grim. Gritting their teeth as they ripped through the endless horde like it was tissue paper. Grimm weapons were destruction incarnate- weapons made to hurt, to kill, to destroy enhanced by the purest form of utter annihilation.
Was it any wonder that a single shot from Ember Celica created a gout of flame that carved a fifty meter trench through the horde and annihilated every grimm in its path? Was it any wonder that Myrtenaster carved lines of horrible red through the air, each slash of its lance form cleaving through bone and hide like they were nothing but the smoke they turned into? Was it any wonder that Gambol Shroud became as death itself, a cleaver and a sickle that reaped and butchered through everything and everything that came close and erased grimm from the world in trails of inky black? Was it any wonder that Midnight's flames roiled pitch black and burned the grimm to nothingness? Was it any wonder that every single one of Talaria's kicks shattered the sound barrier and sent even the largest grimm tumbling away? Was it any wonder that Thief's Respite whipped up whirlwinds with the swing of the chains, blades turning grimm into so many shreds of giblets and offal as they ripped through the air? Was it any wonder that Hush became a weapon of wicked death, a single stab of its poisoned blade felling grimm left and right from the simplest touch?
No.
There was no wonder at all- it was a given. Just like how Crescent Rose and Augury worked together as twin, twisted scythes of branching bone and flesh, given strength and purpose by Ruby's will to rip and tear through the horde until nothing was left, her rose petals swirling and slashing just as surely as she did in the form of a wheel of black and red and silver, trailing golden sparks in her wake as she and Penny's souls continued to call to each other no matter how far away they were. Just like how Floating Array's intensely powerful lasers and slashes became even moreso, decimating entire portions of the landscape in flashes of crimson and neon green that seared the eyes and left nothing but ash and smoke behind.
And yet.
And yet.
Even with all of that.
Even with all of their strength, their abilities, their skill, their weapons…
They'd been overwhelmed and the city of Mantle itself, tipped to the breaking point by the sheer amount of hatred poisoning the air, had begun to collapse as the grimm began to shatter the walls, punching through little by little as the grimm carelessly sacrificed themselves in a crushing tide that pushed and pushed and pushed…
Then the monster appeared.
A titanic whale that dispensed a waterfall of grimm, a whale so big it almost seemed the size of Atlas itself.
The tide intensified, the feeling of dread in the air reached a fever pitch as Salem revealed herself to the world with an announcement of death and condemnation on her tongue.
The fight turned. Mantle and Atlas alike fought desperately, but were swiftly becoming overwhelmed. And then…
Ruby's silver eyes slammed open as the tide overwhelmed the defenses, unable to fight any longer no matter how much mass she took in. She unleashed the light of creation within, and, far away, her soul mingled with Penny's.
Blazing light overtook the field from two sides, two souls entwined as one as light and dark, creation and destruction, silver and black, both fought each other with such force that it seemed to rip a hole in the air as the two let out a simultaneous, wordless cry for a miracle.
"RUBY!"
"JAUNE!?"
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