บท 85: Ch 84: Pillow Wars (4)

---Saturday, June, 5---

Which brings us back to the present day.

"GRENADE!" Yang shouted as with his dying breath Yatsu tossed a neck pillow between her and Blake, who had just teamed up to take him down. Before the feather bomb could detonate, Yang soared through the air and tackled her partner to the ground. However, despite her friend's brave sacrifice, the shockwave from the explosion must have been too great, for she did not move from where she lay, sandwiched between Yang's pillowy mountains.

"It's just you and me now, girl."

"You shall pay for dishonoring my family." Ray and Velvet, the last ones standing, faced off in the middle of the carnage doing their best impressions of corny movie star lines.

All was silent as they both leaned forward, their hands resting on the pillows hanging at their sides. Then, a flash, they leapt towards each other. They drew their plush blades and slashed as they passed each other. They stopped, frozen, in their opponent's previous position. Who had won!?!

*Gah* Velvet was the first to move, spitting up a mouthful of blood as she collapsed lifelessly backward. Before she could hit the ground, Ray turned and dashed back towards her, catching her by her willowy waist and slipping his arm beneath her knees.

"VICTORY FOR PANCAKES!" Ray shouted as he lifted the limp body of the slain bunny over his head.

He held that pose for a moment as silence reigned over the dorm room. The burst remains of the gallant warriors that had fought valiantly in this epic conflict littered the floor, and their white innards still drifting through the air to settle on the slain bodies of his friends.

*Pff* The dramatic silence was broken as a snort of laughter slipped out of Nora's lips.

**PFAHAHAHAHHAHAHA** Like the breaking of a dam, the other corpses strewn across the battlefield burst into laughter as they awakened.

*Phaha* "Ray, put me down." Velvet squirmed in his hands as she tried to talk around her laughter.

*Haha* "Down we go." Ray warned before he abruptly let go of her and stepped back, letting her drop and catching her in a princess carry.

*Wah!* *haha* "You jerk." Velvet scolded him, still laughing, as she hopped out of his arms and gave him a friendly slug to the shoulder.

*Hahaha* "I'm exhausted." Fox commented happily as he stretched his limbs and knocked the mountain of pillows that Pyrrha had buried him in off himself but didn't bother to get up.

"Best. Pillow fight. Ever!" *haha* Ruby agreed.

"Shame it will be our last one for a while." Jaune said sadly. As the first to go down, he felt like he had missed out on something important.

*Haha* "What are you talking about? Just because we won't be going through hell anymore doesn't mean we have to stop." Yang protested. "Right, Ray?"

"Oh yeah, this is our last slumber party of the semester." Ray said as he leaned back on his hands idly instead of answering like he had just remembered. "There's something I need to tell you guys."

*Yawn* "Can it wait till mornin'?" Nora asked around a yawn.

"Probably, and it will probably ruin any good night's sleep you guys were hoping to get tonight." Ray agreed with a nod. However, that second part had caught all of their curiosity. So, they weren't upset when Ray continued to say, "But that's exactly why I think I should tell you all now so that you have a night to think on it and a day to ask me questions before the two-week break since I will be away on missions all during the break."

Everyone sat up to better pay attention to the dark red-haired pretty boy sitting in the middle of the room staring up at the ceiling. "During the climax of the Vital Festival, when everyone's emotions are at their peak. Beacon will be invaded. By a hoard of Grimm." Ray dropped the bomb like he was casually making a comment on the weather, causing it to take a moment before everyone else registered what he had said.

""WHAT!"" They all shouted in surprise. Except Ruby and Yang.

"Did you two know about this?" Blake asked, sounding betrayed as she noticed the lack of reactions from her two teammates.

"I think so." Yang admitted with a nod, "This is about what's-her-face, the so-called Grimm Queen that almost killed your mom and scared mine into abandoning me, right?" She turned to ask Ray for confirmation.

"Woah Woah Woah. Start at the beginning. Who's this Grimm Queen, and how do you know she is going to be attacking Beacon?" Coco rubbed her eyes with one hand and held up her other hand, asking them to slow down as she tried to make sense of what she had just heard.

"What's your favorite fairy tale?" Ray asked instead of answering, doing his best Professor Ozpin impression.

*Oof* "Just answer the question." However, instead of answering, Weiss threw a pillow and conked him upside the head.

"Alright." Ray chuckled, "But please keep in mind that though this may all sound like a fairy tale, it is all too real." Ray sat up straighter and took a deep breath before he began.

"A long time ago. In an age of countless kingdoms. Where the gods lived among the people and blessed them with magic. There lived a hero. He traveled the lands righting wrongs and slaying evil and by his side stood a beautiful sorceress. His wife, friend, companion, and soul mate. However, one day, the hero fell gravely ill and passed away. Stricken by grief, the sorceress begged the god of light to bring her beloved back from the dead. But he refused. Bringing the dead back to life would destroy the balance of the world he and his brother had worked so hard to maintain. Undeterred, the sorceress next sought out his brother, the god of darkness in a land where no living creatures dared to tread. Upon reaching his altar, she sang the god of darkness's praise, saying how she knew that his brother, who the rest of the world adored, could never help her and only he could grant her wish. Tricked by the woman's praise, the god of darkness raised her beloved from the dead.

However, the god of light sensed this and confronted his brother and the sorceress. The sorceress tried to turn the brothers against each other, but her trickery was soon uncovered, and the hero was banished back to the underworld. As the sorceress wailed and cursed the two gods for their cruelty, the god of light cast her into his pool of life. Having bathed in the depths of the pool, the woman emerged, immortal. The gods told her that she was now cursed to never reunite with her beloved, to walk the face of the world for as long as it turned until she had learned the importance of life and death.

Unrepentant and enraged at the arrogance of the gods, the sorceress traveled to each of the major kingdoms at the time, displaying her immortality for the royals. She claimed that she had stolen the secret to immortality from the gods and that if they were to raise up with her, they could all claim it for themselves. Greedy for this power. To never grow old or watch their loved ones wither away before them, the many kings and queens of the land agreed. They formed an army that blackened the land for as far as the eye could see and marched upon the altar of the god of light.

But what is the might of man before that of a god? With but a single breath, the god of darkness, arrived at his brother's side and destroyed the grand army, leaving none alive that had dared to oppose them. No man nor woman in the entire world was spared his wrath. Except the sorceress. Disappointed with the betrayal of their children, the gods abandoned the world they had created, shattering the moon in their passing and leaving but a remnant of the once-prosperous world behind.

For centuries the woman wandered the world alone. Seeking only release. Seeking only death. Cursing all for her fate. All but herself. But her journey was for naught, for what mortal creation could defy the power of a god. But perhaps the power of another could fulfill her wish. And so she found herself back at the altar of the god of darkness. Casting herself into the pool of destruction from which all the horrors of the world were born, she hoped that the powers of destruction hidden by the god of darkness within would destroy the curse cast upon her by his brother and her along with it. She was wrong.

The powers of the gods of light and darkness were equal and balanced. The pool of destruction could not destroy a being of infinite life. Instead, they merged. What rose from that inky black pool was no longer the selfish sorceress pining after her beloved. Rather it was a creature of infinite life that desired pure destruction.

That sorceress's name is Salem, and to this day, she walks this world. Leading the Grimm in her quest to snuff out all of creation. All that reminds her of the gods she loathes, even herself. Hanging on to one last thread of hope, that she had been cursed to walk this world only for as long as it turned. If she could destroy it, then maybe she would finally be free.

But the gods do not give up so easily. Hoping to redeem and repair the world they had abandoned and knowing that the cycle of life and death could not be stopped even by their absence. That, one day, humanity would once again rise to walk the earth. The god of light went back on his word and resurrected the fallen hero. He gifted him with four relics containing the powers of Creation, Destruction, Choice, and Knowledge, the ideals upon which they had built humanity.

He tasked the hero with using the relics to guide the reborn humans and told him that if all four relics were brought together, then he and his brother would return to the world. If they found it a place of harmony where all races and creeds could live together in peace, then they would live among the people once more, bless them and make the world whole again. However, if turmoil and strife still divided them, then they would wipe the world from existence. Until his task was complete, the hero would be cursed like his beloved had been. He would forever walk the face of the world, reincarnating every time he died into the body of another like-minded individual, merging their souls into one. The god of light gave him one last warning that though Salem still lived, his beloved was gone, and he would only find pain where he sought comfort. Then sent him back to the remnant of the world he and his brother had left behind.

Today we know him as Ozpin." Ray finished his tale, and silence reigned.

"You're joking, right?" Coco finally asked. But Ray shook his head.

"And this, Salem, is coming here. To attack Beacon!" Ren's voice held barely contained panic.

"We have to tell Ozipn!" Jaune shouted, trying to jump to his feet, but Ray raised his hand and stopped his movements by interrupting the signals of his nervous system using his semblance.

"Ozpin already knows." He reassured him. "He hasn't told the people because he knows it would only cause a panic. They have been fighting for centuries by now. He knows that it is better to combat an undying foe with a few elite rather than a multitude that would only serve as cannon fodder."

"Why are you telling us this?" Pyrrha asked, fists clenched before her. "Why us?"

"Because you are strong, smart, full of light, and most importantly, you are my friends whom I trust and want to protect. And because I have realized something Ozpin hasn't, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say something he has refused to recognize."

"What?" Blake asked with apprehension.

"That Ozpin can never defeat Salem. They have been fighting each other for countless centuries across countless lives. They know each other far too well, and Salem has the tactical advantage. She is on the offensive, operating from the shadows, while Ozpin is on the defensive, operating in the light. Salem only needs to win once and can strike when and however she chooses. Ozpin can't afford to lose even once, and his actions are restricted by the people around him whose trust and support he must maintain without revealing to them the truth. Our best and perhaps only hope at victory is to work in parallel with Ozpin. Towards the same goal but without his knowledge. That is what I have been working towards."

"What do you mean what you have been working towards?" Weiss asked.

"I am the Lotus in the Spider Lotus criminal organization." Ray's simple statement caused all of his friends to draw in a sharp breath and subconsciously scoot away from him as they wondered how well they really knew the younger man.

"You said before you knew how to kill Salem." Yang said as everyone was questioning everything they thought they knew about Ray. "Care to tell us now how you plan to do that?"

"Nop*e." Ray said with a shake of his head and popping the 'p'. "I told you, Yang, this is my kill. I won't let anyone else carry this burden. But if you were paying attention, there were a couple of hints in that story I just told you."

"Until she had learned the importance of life and death." Velvet quoted as she looked at Ray questioningly.

"Correct, that is one way." Ray nodded in confirmation, "And one Ozpin's first reincarnation nearly succeeded in, and might have, if he hadn't gotten cold feet. You see, he ignored the god of light's warnings and sought Salem out once he had returned to the world. He found her, and they started a family together. For a time, they had a wonderful life together and gave birth to four girls, but when they discovered that their children had inherited their gift for magic, Ozpin began second-guessing his decisions and tried to take them away from Salem. If Ozpin had stuck it out and tried to teach Salem the wonders of family and being a mother, perhaps, one day, she would have learned the importance of life and death.

Instead, enraged by his betrayal, Salem fought him for the first time, and their little girls were slain in the crossfire. But it was not only their gift for magic that they had inherited from their parents. They had inherited a part of their immortality as well. To this day, a part of each of them still exists, reincarnating like their father into the bodies of young women and granting them the ability to wield magic. However, from what I have been able to gather, little to none of their original consciousness remains. Nowadays, they are known as the maidens of the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall.

Our mother is the Summer Maiden which is how she and her team got caught up in Ozpin and Salem's battle resulting in our mother having to fake her death and go into hiding and mentally scarring Yang's mom for life."

"This is a lot to take in." Fox said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You're still you, right?" Nora suddenly asked, staring hard at Ray. "You're still Ray, our friend. You're not just trying to use us as disposable tools to fight an impossible war."

"Absolutely not!" Ray denied. "I would never do anything to hurt any of you. If I thought I could keep you guys out of this fight, I would, but I know that is impossible, so I want to make sure you are fully aware of what you all are getting yourselves into before you charge in headfirst."

"Then it's all good." Nora said with a smile, "This is all way too complicated for me. If you say you got it handled, then I guess I'll leave it to you. Goodnight, Ray." Nora laid back down and pulled a blanket over herself as she shot a small Aura ball from her fingertip and hit the light switch turning it off.

In the darkness, the rest of the gang sat in stunned silence before eventually, dry chuckles bubbled up from within them.

*hmhm* "She's right. Let us know what we can do to help Ray. And thank you for trusting us. Goodnight." Coco said as she also laid down to rest and give all the thought running around in her head time to sort themselves out.

""Goodnight."" ""Night."" Everyone called as they also laid down to sleep on what they had just learned. Ray was the last to finally lay down, still shocked at how easily they had accepted everything.

[I've made some great friends.] Ray couldn't help smiling as he closed his eyes. Yang was already snuggling with Blake, so there was, unfortunately, no need for him to act as her hug pillow tonight to keep her from snoring.