Chương 125: Chapter 125: Evernight
"Where... the power... why..."
Cinder whispered, staring in disbelief at the destroyed mountain.
She regained consciousness after a few minutes and now sat inside a special seal drawn from her Maiden power.
Raven was lying nearby, and the bodies of her tribe were in another area.
"The end of the tribe..."
Qrow whispered, showing little regret for what had happened even though she was his sister.
"The end of a bunch of bandits."
Weiss snorted.
"How did you achieve such power? Who are you?"
Cinder asked, her gaze filled with disdain from everyone on Ruby's team.
Ruby herself was... crying with tears streaming down her face with regret, fear, curiosity, confusion, desire, and even a bit of respect.
"That's none of your concern."
Winter said it coldly. She was quite pleased when she beat the one who had escaped her last time.
"I already told you my name. I'm Anthony Luthor... I suppose you could consider me a god. And I'm here to deal with the brothers, the gods of Remnant."
I admitted, causing Cinder's eyes to widen in shock.
"No, I'm not joking, and I will visit your mistress soon to talk to her before I decide her fate."
"Deciding Salem's fate..."
Cinder whispered, her gaze distant as if looking through me.
"I think she's broken."
Yang commented.
"You have light in your eyes, like me!"
Ruby suddenly exclaimed, appearing right in front of my face and peering into my eyes.
"Only yours are more like powerful lasers that destroy everything in their path... cool!"
She exclaimed again.
"Actually, yeah, I thought about that too. Only Ruby can destroy just Grimm... not everything else."
Weiss added when glancing back at the mountain.
"I'm glad you liked it."
As Ruby was jumping on me, I managed to catch her before she hit the ground, causing her to blush deeply and curl up in shyness.
"I-I... T-Tony... u-u-uh..."
She shyly said.
Meanwhile, Yang was looking at the fallen Raven, her head filled with heavy thoughts but soon she snapped out of it and they started to talk.
Yang accused her mother of being a coward while Raven tried to defend herself by saying she had no choice and it was the only way... and she kept looking frightened at me.
"Alright, let me take the Maiden's powers before Ironwood arrives."
I said while calling Winter over.
"T-take them?"
Yang's eyes widened.
"W-wait!"
She seemed to misunderstand me.
"I told you I could do it without killing the person from whom the powers are taken."
I reminded her.
"Oh... right... hehe."
She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.
"What are you going to do?"
Raven jerked as I approached, but she quickly froze, unable to move a muscle.
Cinder was clearly scared since she had heard what I was planning and didn't do anything, fully aware of the vast power gap between us... or she just saw a small fraction of my power.
The ritual went faster than with Fria because I knew exactly what to do and had experience.
The powers of the Maidens were successfully transferred to Winter's artifact, making her even stronger.
"Even Ki didn't give such sensations..."
Winter muttered.
Judging by the power of the Maidens, Ozpin was once a rather powerful wizard in this world and could obliterate cities with his strongest spells, but he lost almost all of that power.
General James arrived within thirty minutes.
The Branwen Tribe, Cinder, and her followers were significant enough reasons for him to come personally.
Since I had taken her powers, Cinder had been silent while staring down at the ground, not daring to lift her head.
"Is that arm a gift from Salem?"
My question made her look up at me, and she just nodded.
"It's slowly turning your flesh into something akin to itself... eventually, you would have become more Grimm than human."
She didn't respond to what I said, but her arm turned to dust in less than a second, and a normal human arm grew in its place.
"How..."
Cinder's gaze was filled with surprise and... a certain degree of reverence.
"I can do many things but you'll remain in custody for now, and then I'll decide."
"What do you mean?"
Winter interjected.
She was standing nearby to ensure no one escaped while Atlas soldiers loaded them into Bullheads.
"She is strong and experienced. If it weren't for her obsession with power, she wouldn't have served Salem."
I answered while turning away from her.
"And, surprisingly, her soul isn't that dark."
"I don't support this. She's a murderer and a criminal. She belongs in a cell."
"For now, I agree. However, once I deal with Salem, new problems will arise in this world, and her assistance could be useful. At least as security for the Dust Company or as an enforcer capable of a lot."
Winter pursed her lips at my words but didn't argue.
There were a few who were strong and capable enough to act independently.
Cinder could indeed be useful in this world and easily controllable.
She fears me, and that irritates her, but my power is so immense in her eyes that she has even stopped resisting.
Moreover, my claim of being a god is validated by my ability to do what even Salem or Ozma cannot—extract the Maiden's power without the death of the previous Maiden.
I don't fully believe in a bright future for everyone in Remnant because people will find new threats in each other when the gods fall and the Grimm no longer threaten them.
It won't happen immediately and will take some time, but it will happen.
That's why useful and strong subordinates will be valuable to Winter and Cinder... isn't that bad because I can literally feel it.
"Are you sure you want to go alone?"
James asked, still uncertain about my plan to visit the continent where even the strongest hunters haven't returned from the place where Salem lives.
"Absolutely. There's nothing there that can threaten me, and it's time we had a conversation. I'll return once I'm done."
"Take care of yourself."
Ruby said shyly while glancing quickly at Yang, who was currently talking to Raven and then she rushed to hug me.
"I will, don't worry Ruby."
I hugged her back, causing her to blush even more and bury her face in my shoulder.
"...she's immortal and very strong, but I believe you're stronger... and with your magic, you'll definitely defeat her!"
Ruby's shining eyes didn't lie, and she truly believed in me.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll be back soon."
I waved to the rest of the girls on the team and Winter, then teleported to the Land of Darkness, as it's known in Remnant.
This place was once the home of the God of Darkness with dark purple lands, black crystals with purple veins from the ground, and numerous pools of darkness from which the Grimm emerged.
"I actually feel fine here."
I muttered.
I had expected that my strong attribute of light might make me uncomfortable to be here.
Still, since I also have the attribute of darkness, I assumed that it would balance the effects of this place on me.
A dark halo briefly flashed above my head to confirm my hypothesis.
A couple of kilometers from where I arrived, there was a dark castle where Salem and some of her henchmen resided.
One of the henchmen I recognized well was Arthur Watts.
I had previously hinted to James about potential spies, and he was the one I had in mind.
However, this "spy" must have sensed something and faked his death to escape and seek refuge with Salem.
"Good day, gentlemen and the goddess of darkness even though it might not actually be day."
'It's hard to tell with the local atmosphere and weather... but it is a day in Mistral, so let's go with that.'
I shrugged while appearing right in the center of the room where the henchmen and Salem herself were gathered.
"What the..."
Arthur Watts blinked, looking like an ordinary scientist with a mustache and green eyes.
"How dare you interrupt the goddess?!"
A Faunus with a scorpion tail exclaimed, about to lunge at me, but was stopped by Salem's raised hand.
"Calm down, and who might you be, so boldly intruding into my home... to me? Are you the one who defeated Cinder last time? And where is she?
She inquired.
"She's secured in a Bullhead. I took her Maiden powers and transferred them to someone more suitable and yes, I have taken all the relics."
I held up the Relic of Knowledge in my hand in my hand.
"Interesting... and what do you want?
She stood up while revealing herself in all her glory... her soul was literally wrapped in darkness, but there was still light inside.
"It's quite simple, and our goals even align. I want the gods dead."
I smiled.
"Madman, I once was too. My people couldn't find any information about you, and I can sense magic in you..."
"I am a mage. More precisely, an Archmage of divine power."
I said it honestly.
"Ha-ha, it seems you truly have gone mad."
Salem chuckled.
"Don't waste my time and hand over the relic."
A concentrated orb of darkness appeared on her hand.
"Ah, here come the threats. Why does no one ever believe me?"
I asked, looking up at the ceiling.
At that moment, the same Faunus couldn't hold back any longer and lunged at me with his tail piercing my aura that I had intentionally "turned off."
As the tip of his tail met my skin, it simply... broke.
The next moment, my eyes lit up, and a laser disintegrated the Faunus and the entire wall behind him.
The laser also obliterated a thousand Grimm outside.
A very useful ability.
"..."
Arthur looked on in shock.
Hazel Rainart was standing off to the side.
He worked for Salem because he hated Ozpin and all of his reincarnations and believed Ozpin killed his huntress sister.
"Impressive, perhaps your talk wasn't empty after all... You're from the God of Light, right? I didn't think my hatred would be ignited so fiercely! I will destroy the new champion from those bastards!"
Salem said it with a voice filled with genuine hatred, pain, and despair.
She hurled projectiles woven from the darkness at me, and I redirected away from the castle.
The blast looked like a nuclear bomb and could be seen through the hole I just made in the wall.
She hadn't spared any energy in her attack.
"Actually, I mentioned at the beginning that my goal is to kill him, as well as his brother,"
I corrected the enraged woman.
"Lies!"
Salem exclaimed to prepare a much more powerful attack than the previous one but my laser simply bisected her body...
"You two, go to Ironwood."
I said, binding Salem's two henchmen with magical restraints and teleporting them to Winter.
Salem clearly misunderstood me by believing that the two gods had sent me or given me my abilities.
I just needed to explain that this was far from the truth.
After all, Salem's story is deeply intertwined with these gods and Ozma, a millennium of pain and sorrow along with shattered dreams and hopes.
She went from being a princess in a castle to being a woman desperate to bring her lover back to life, to a woman trying to rule the world, and finally to a woman who was broken and had lost everything she loved.
She was left only with pain and hatred.
...
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