Chương 77: Ch 76: Mirror, Mirror (2)

[Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or form of measure. And all of it… irreplaceable.] A quote from one of her favorite books echoed through Weiss's head as she walked towards the Schnee Dust Company training room.

She had told her father a week ago that she was going to Beacon to become a huntress. He had, in turn, informed her that he had already registered her for The Atlas Summit Academy for Young Ladies. A private institution that accepted the children of only the wealthiest and most influential families in Atlas.

Naturally, she had refused. Summit was as far from Beacon as the shattered moon was from Mantel. It offered zero combat courses and was instead known for its arts and management programs. Her dream of becoming a huntress and proving herself would never come true in that castle strewn with flowers and hubris. Worst of all, she would still be under her father's thumb.

She and her father's contrasting opinions on her future had led to yet another fiery argument within the chilly Schnee family mansion. Finally, after a week of explosive shouting and heavy silences, they had come to a compromise. If Weiss could pass her father's trial, she could go to Beacon. If she failed, then Weiss would obediently go to Summit and put her best foot forward towards becoming a worthy heir in the eyes of her father.

It still hurt. Seeing how her father discarded her opinion and tried to force his own upon her. Despite knowing that she was little more than a tool in her father's eyes, the disappointment still hurt.

Weiss straightened her spine, squared her shoulders, and shook off the melancholy of why she was here. [I will prove myself to Father first, then I will go to Beacon and prove myself to my teachers and classmates. I will graduate at the top of my class and then show the world that I am more than just Jacques Schnee's youngest daughter. I-]

"Please reconsider, Miss. Schnee. You want to become a huntress, don't you? Atlas Academy is an excellent Huntsman Academy. Why do you have to go all the way to Beacon to study? It's so far away. Your father-"

"It's because it is far away." Weiss cut off her father's secretary, who was following behind her.

"And because Beacon is located in the Kingdom of Vale, we wouldn't be able to respond if anything were to happen. The president is worried about you." His emotionless monotone voice showing none of the concern his words indicated.

"If keeping me trapped is my father's way of showing concern, then I don't want it." Weiss scoffed.

"I do not understand. You were born into a prestigious family. You seek power yourself. Yet you are trying to distance yourself from it. Both you and Miss. Winter."

"I don't expect somebody like you to understand. You're a puppet without a mind of its own." Weiss said dismissively.

"It seems you have a talent of irritating people as well." His cold monotone finally cracking to reveal the annoyance underneath

"Why, thank you. I'm glad to know you have the ability to be irritated." Weiss replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The secretary's glasses glinted under the fluorescent lights as he pushed them back up his nose before turning and strolling calmly away towards the training room control room, his emotions once again hidden behind a mask of indifference. "I warned you." He whispered as the training room doors slid open in front of his charge.

As Weiss walked into the training room, the lights automatically came on in front of her. Illuminating the interior of the training room row by row, revealing the final obstacle standing between her and her escape from under her father's thumb. A kneeling suit of armor that was slowly rising to its feet.

[A mechanized replica of Grandfather's armor, huh. How appropriate that it will be a symbol of Grandfather's legacy that will set me free. Wait… THAT'S-]

*Swish* Weiss rolled frantically to the side as the knight's giant two-hander double-edged great sword came crashing down where she had just been standing.

[Not a robot. A Grimm. My bastard father actually let a Geist poses a replica of Grandfather's armor!] Weiss seethed inside in shock and rage at her father's blasphemy.

[It may be powerful, but I'm faster!] Weiss thought as she launched herself at the Grimm possessed suit of armor and tried to pierce it with Myrtenaster. Her rapier skidded along its chest plate, doing zero damage as she zipped past it. Having taken the giants back, Weiss didn't give it a chance to turn and unleashed a flurry of stinging blows at it. But for all her enthusiasm, she did little more than scratch its hardened metal body. Her barrage was forced to end as the Arma Gigas used the torque from turning to send a wind-splitting horizontal slash at her faster than she could dodge.

*Clang* Bracing herself behind Myrtenaster, Weiss was able to block the blow but was sent skidding backward across the reinforced floor. Steadying herself, Weiss evaluated her options. [There's no body inside, but messing with its joints should still at least hinder its movement.] Taking a brief moment to catch her breath, she charged back into the fray. This time dancing around its stamping feet as she swung her beloved rapier at the gaps in its armor around its knees, trying to bring the big metal guy down to more her level.

Unfortunately, Weiss's fast, piercing weapon just didn't have enough raw mass behind it to deliver the blunt force she was looking for. Until she started using her Semblance.

Using her force glyphs to throw herself bodily at the Arma Gigas, Weiss was finally able to get enough force behind her strikes to do some noticeable damage. She had even managed to make it stumble a couple of times. Until she made a mistake.

Using a glyph to launch herself into the air, Weiss delivered a vicious uppercut under its helmet that would have killed any living being wearing the armor but only sent the possessed armor stumbling back. Unwilling to let the distance open between them and give it a chance to use its sword again, Weiss created another force glyph on the air behind her and launched herself after it. And past it, as it swayed to the side and backward out of her way.

Realizing the danger she was in, Weiss quickly used her semblance to create a glyph platform in the air instead of letting herself fall back to the ground in the hopes of getting back in close to it before it could react to her mistake. She didn't make it.

As she turned back around, she saw its giant greatsword swing at her, threatening to tear her in two. Weiss quickly jumped off her glyph to dodge the sweep but, while suspended in the air, was unable to react in time as a wall of metal rushed towards her.

*BANG* A metal fist as big as her body slammed into her like a wrecking ball sensing flying across the training room and into the floor. Shattering her aura in one blow. She bounced and skidded several times across the cold hard floor before finally coming to a stop. Battered and bruised but still able to move, Weiss slowly staggered to her feet, panting in pain, one hand clutching her left eye. As she pulled her hand away from her face, she saw it was covered in a sticky red substance, her blood.

"Your Aura is almost completely depleted, Miss. Schnee. Please stop this nonsense before you get yourself seriously hurt. If we don't get your wound looked at soon, it could leave an ugly scar on your beautiful face." The annoyingly patronizing voice of her father's secretary caringly advised over the intercom.

"I'm fine. You know I always finish whatever I set my mind to." Weiss snapped back through gritted teeth as she wiped the blood off on her blue and white gradient dress. Staining the snowy fabric with her crimson blood.

Retaking her stance, Weiss spun Myrtenaster dust cylinder around, activating the red dust cylinder within it. [I'm going to fuck this shit up!] Weiss thought angrily to herself as a red glow crept up her rapier's blade, imbuing it with the power of fire.

Sensing its prey's will to fight reignited, the Grimm charged. Quickly closing the distance between them with its long legs, it brought its 12-foot long greatsword crashing down towards the injured princess. Standing her ground against the descending guillotine, Weiss thrust her thin rapier upwards to meet the descending hunk of metal. It was a completely lopsided competition, both in appearance and results, but for different reasons.

*Boom* As the oversized greatsword met the twig-like rapier, the fire energy in the rapier exploded, shoving the far larger blade back and destroying the massive suit of armor's balance. Not giving it a chance to regroup, Weiss imbued her rapier with the power of ice and stabbed it into the ground. A wave of ice rushed across the floor at the stumbling giant, encasing the lower half of its legs in ice, sealing it in place.

But that didn't stop it. Weiss was still, if just barely, in range of its blade. Lowing its grip to the pommel of its greatsword and fulling extending one of its arms, the Arma Gigas tried to nip the blossoming bud in front of it. Seeing her opportunity while her opponent's grip on its weapon was so flimsy, Weiss jumped and landed on the giant blade using a dust cylinder with magnetic properties to stick herself to and run down it as it slashed through the air.

*Hyaaa!* Putting her full weight behind the strike, Weiss was able to break the possessed knight's grip on its sword and send it flying through the air to stab a quarter of its length into the reinforced training room floor. As the Grimm struggled to free itself from the ice, Weiss knelt and placed her free hand on the ground, using the majority of her remaining Aura to generate a powerful force glyph enhanced with purple gravity dust.

*Crrrrssshhh* The Arma Gigas broke free of its icy bonds and charged towards the heiress who stood with her weapon held challengingly in front of her, four of its five dust cylinders dulled from exhausting their energy.

*Boom* An armored fist slammed into the ground where Weiss had been standing as she rolled out of the way. As she rose to her feet, Weiss flicked her fingers upward, triggering the trap she had left. The heavy suit of armor was thrown like a ragdoll into the air by the force of the glyph and the sudden decrease in gravity.

As it flailed about, Weiss used her second cylinder of light blue dust to generate five ice spikes and infused them with some of her rapidly dwindling Aura. Firing the icy javelins as the falling Grimm, Weiss struck its five extremities, its neck, wrists, and ankles, and used the Aura-infused ice as a medium to create five more force glyphs, each pulling the limbs of the suit of armor outwards away from its body.

With her opponent suspended, crucified in the air by her semblance, Weiss leaped high into the air. This would be her final strike, with all her remaining strength behind it, and so Weiss activated her trump card. Though all five of Myrtenaster's dust cylinders were exhausted, there was still one more hidden in the grip. A mixture of Dust of Weiss's own design made specifically to bring out the maximum of her and Myrtenaster's power. As the energy from the unnamed Dust mixture crept up her blade, the runes etched into it that Weiss had taken inspiration from her own glyphs to created lit up with a blinding white light.

Using the last of her Aura, Weiss created one final force glyph behind herself and flew at the struggling Arma Gigas. Who would live and who would die would be decided by this next strike. As the glyphs suspending it expired, Weiss's figure flashed past it in a streak of white light. Landing in a crouch past it, Weiss didn't even bother opening her eyes as the Grimm erupted into silvery flames behind her. Her greatest opponent to date, the first to leave a lasting mark upon her, the last obstacle between her and her freedom shattered like glass as it hit the floor behind her. Finally, she was free.

After that, she had performed one last concert as the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company before leaving for Beacon. Seeing her father and brother in one balcony, her mother in another, and her sister in yet another with other military higherups from afar while she sang had been the last she had seen of any of her family.

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[Now that I think about it, didn't I see a glimmer of silver in the crowd when I walked onto the stage just before the stage lights blinded me?] It was probably wishful thinking, but it was nice to imagine it might have been the boy walking beside her, coming to show his support for her even before they had met.

Weiss remained deep in thought throughout the rest of their journey to the corgi cafe, not noticing that Ray had kept his arm around her shoulders the entire way.