Cassiel POV
I found out the next day that Ironwood received a letter from Jacques to "celebrate" or whatever, but we all knew the real reason; Ironwood would be defending his seat on the council. Even Weiss, who wasn't there to hear me say the election was likely rigged, believed her father would do anything to win. With all that said, Ironwood is taking us with him. I hope they realize I'm just going to be in the SR until something major comes up. When we arrived, I decided to just wait on the roof instead of entering the SR, I'm sure we'll have answers soon enough.
Some time later, I got an urgent call and met up with everyone in the dining room, Robin was here as well. Weiss did as I was hoping she or Winter would and looked around for anything incriminating and found everything we needed. Thanks to her mother, there was video evidence of Jacques cutting a deal with a "disgraced Atlesian scientist" named Arthur Watts, who was believed to be dead. Treason and accessory to murder are what Jacques's going to be tried for. Personally, you can say people are innocent until proven guilty, but what's the point when you have undeniable proof of guilt? This is why I believe in summary execution, once those charges were brought up though, he had something smart (stupid) to say. Especially in this case since winning the election gave Arthur a "backdoor into Atlas security".
"These are outrageous accusations! I only intended to win the election, I had nothing to do w-" I casted Barrier next to everyone.
*BOOM*
I channelled a lot of Darkness into the Firaga and Aeroga I fired into the wall, destroying almost half of it.
"That is what you will look like if you don't shut your mouth now! Not that you're capable of caring, but people are dead because of you, one of the most dangerous men in the world is about to make your country fall harder than Vale and Beacon, and for what? Money? If it were up to me, you would die alone, unseen, unheard, and unmourned as I do even worse to you than I did to the one who destroyed my life." I threatened. Just as I finished saying that, the rest of the council got a call telling them the heating grid in Mantle has been shut off, apparently Arthur will be able to do "whatever he wants" if given enough time thanks to Jacques.
"Without heat down there, people are going to die." One of the council members said.
"People are going to panic, they're going to riot, there's about to be a mass invasion of Grimm. However, now we can turn this around and truly demonstrate that new Light Dust." I like my plan already.
"How do you expect to turn this around? This is the worst case scenario!" The other member said.
"I can likely hold off one of the Grimm's entry ways into the city with my ability to tame Grimm and usage of Light, alone. Get your troops equipped with the Light Dust I made and get a broadcast going, telling everyone to evacuate to the shelters as you tell them about Arthur and Tyrian with Robin's Semblance as you try to lift them to Atlas. To make the civilians feel safer, tell them that you're allowing them to equip themselves with Dust and weapons from shops. Once hope, faith, and unity are established, tell everyone about Amity to lure out Arthur, and have Robin come to me to lure out Tyrian after switching the broadcast to me so I can show them what I'm doing. He'll want to cause chaos, killing Robin will greatly dishearten Mantle, killing me will make it several times more vulnerable, he'll have to target us. If all goes well, both will be dead and Mantle will be saved. That does not mean arrest them, it means kill!" Everyone looked at me in shock.
"Aerial Grimm aside, there is only one entry way into the city." Winter said.
"Then they'll have to kill me if they want those Grimm to do anything major."
"You came up with all that on the spot?" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"What part of that seemed out of character for me? I'll be waiting outside while you all get ready for your first large scale battle."
The flight has been uneventful, Ironwood took a bit of convincing to go along with my plan, but he's getting the broadcast set up now with Robin, rather, a recording to play so she can come to me.
"Alright everyone, I need to stress to our new Huntsmen and Huntresses that we are prioritizing civilian safety over killing Grimm. Got it?" Clover asked.
"Sorry, but I'm going to be more useful by that giant hole in the wall, especially when Tyrian takes the bait. I might not even have to fight him at all if the Grimm can kill him for me." I told him.
"Sorry kid, but you'll have to get in line. I've got a score to settle with that freak!" Qrow said, I aimed Lionheart at him.
"I would trust Hitler not to gas a Jew before I would trust you to properly deal with Tyrian, especially since he has you beat 1-0!" I responded.
"Uuummm, who's Hitler?" Why Ruby? Why did you have to ask that?
"He made Salem look like the embodiment of virtue, I'll leave it at that." I answered as a Wyvern Grimm latched itself onto the windshield. "And there's my ride the rest of the way. We'll continue this conversation never." I channelled my Darkness and it obeyed my command to fly by the side of the ship as I jumped out and landed on it's neck. There was a faint, throbbing pain in my silver eye, good to know it's lessened since the train.
The flight down became much faster after hitching a ride on the Wyvern, once we were close enough to see the wall, there was already a horde that made it past the wall, I'll leave the others to deal with that. I made the Wyvern dive bomb into the wall to see how that would go, it got trampled immediately. Shame. As I landed, two Sabretooths rushed at me, but I grabbed one's head and threw it into the other hard enough to kill them both. I used more Darkness and started taming the Sabretooths as I shot the Mammoths with Light Dust from Lionheart. The Grimm entering the city on the ground began to slow down after a few minutes, all the Grimm were obeying my commands to attack the ones that were ignoring me, which was mostly the older Mammoths. Beowolves, Ursi, Sabretooths, the younger Mammoths, I was holding this place down easily, though my eye was beginning to hurt a little more, I'd say I can do this for maybe 15 minutes tops before the pain becomes too much.
After a few minutes, Robin joined up with me, to say she couldn't believe what she was seeing is an understatement. Around that same time, Ironwood started broadcasting the message to Mantle before switching it over to me by having Robin record it on her scroll.
"Go!" She said. I held out my hand towards one of the obedient Mammoths and started running it along it's trunk, it used it's trunk to lift me on it's head.
"Arthur, Tyrian, this part of your plan is failing miserably right now." I pointed behind me to show all the Grimm that aren't entering the city. "And that's not all." I unloaded Lionheart and loaded it with Light and Dark Dust as I showed everyone my face, shocking Robin enough that she almost dropped the her scroll while I showed off the new Dust. Light Dust was disintegrating all the Grimm it touched and piercing right through them while Dark Dust would either just kill it, make it explode and kill others near it, or make it writhe in agony for a few seconds before dying. "The only threat to me right now would be Salem. I killed Adam, I killed Hazel, I saw Cinder die, and now one of you are next! Eternity is very close, can you feel yourselves slipping?"
As the Cursebearer, source of thy power, I order thee.
Wait, no price this time?
"Keep the camera on, Robin." She slowly complied as she tried to process what she was seeing. "As the Cursebearer, source of thy power, I order thee."
From above, rain down the Tears of The Frosted Heavens.
"From above, rain down the Tears of The Frosted Heavens."
From the North, let the screams my enemies be lost to the Howling Winds.
"From the North, let the screams my enemies be lost to the Howling Winds."
Frost Purge!
"Frost Purge!"
Clouds began swirling above us as the winds began to pick up. I could tell the temperature was plummeting, but I wasn't being affected by it, more like I was near it and wasn't caught in it even as I went in deeper, the Mammoth I was riding was also safe from it. It was like a focused snow storm, but with giant shards of ice dropping from above, impaling all the Grimm as they either stood there or tried to rush into the city. It got to the point that Grimm were being frozen in seconds or being impaled, even the Wyverns above us were being shot down or frozen. This continued on for a few more minutes, eventually leaving a blockade of ice and frozen Grimm. I flew over the wall to the other side and saw how far it extended past the wall, it was well over 100 meters, closer to 140 actually, nothing but frozen Grimm and shards of ice bigger than me. I flew back inside Mantle and walked past Robin.
"And with that, I may as well have just fixed your wall. Nothing is getting through that easily." I looked back at Robin. "That was a taste of my magic, you're not a threat to me. You can end the recording now." She took her time doing so. "Now we wait for a certain psychopath." I said as I suppressed my Darkness.
"What was all that?" She asked, unable to comprehend what she just saw.
"Magic. Now let's see,-" I switched out the Light Dust for Dark Dust and counted how much of both I have. "over 40 of each, not including what's currently loaded, that should be enough."
After several minutes of waiting, I decided to just kill the Mammoth and sit down. I'm itching to kill him, Tyrian. I made an exception for Neo because of how useful she might be, but him? He works for Salem and tried to hurt Ruby, more than enough reason to kill him. Just as I was about to look for him myself, he jumped from the rooftops a few meters away.
"Cassiel and Robin Hill! You know, for such a little bird, you have quite the impact around here." Robin shot him, but he shifted his body to avoid it. "And you, Cassiel, my Mistress would be so... Disappointed to lose you. AND AFTER THAT SPECTACULAR DISPLAY, I CAN SEE WHY! AAHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAAAHHAHHHA!" He laughed like a madman. "You have no idea how much she wishes to meet you, even before you hurt dear Cinder, killed Hazel, and young Adam." Wait, hurt? Cinder?
"What do you mean by 'hurt' when you said Cinder?" I asked. I swear to Raven, if she's alive, I'm bringing a can of Raid because she has to be part cockroach!
"Why, you'll have to see for yourself, my boy! HehehahaHAHAHAHHAAHHHAAA!" He ran towards us, blocking every arrow Robin shot at him. I threw Nightfall past him and airstepped towards it, grabbing his head along the way and throwing him at the wall Nightfall lodged itself in.
"Want to try that again?" I asked as I recalled Nightfall as a scythe and aimed Lionheart at him. He just laughed again and leaped at me. Vicious, unpredictable, I would use my Darkness, but I want to save that for later. I was being put on the defensive, not something I'm used. He was making full use of each limb, his prosthetic scorpion tail, his wristblades, his legs, I think this is what it's like on the receiving end of so many weapons.
He thrusted his tail at me, I dodged it, but he swiped my leg with his own and sliced my chest as I lost my balance. I was not told he could negate aura. Just as he was about to slice my eye, Robin distracted him long enough for me to strike him with Lionheart. Just as I struck him, I also shot him and launched him back with Aeroga. I casted Cura on myself, the wound healed, but there wasn't any aura there. As I looked at the damage done to him, he was badly bruised on his hip, it looks like he was cut just as bad bleeding as Darkness was seeping out of the wound.
"What did you DO??!!" He shouted angrily before laughing again, he isn't healing himself. Does Dark Dust act as a sort of aura poison? He jumped over me and went for Robin, but I airstepped towards him again and slammed his head into the ground. We had to back away as he rapidly lashed out in all directions before flipping himself back onto his feet and running towards me, shooting me as he moved erratically, aiming for the opening in my aura, thankfully I was able to block it.
He jumped off a wall and I noticed his eyes changed from yellow to purple as his hand was covered in that same color. I noticed at the last second that he was also about to thrust his tail at me, so I casted Barrier to block his hand and grabbed the end of his tail. I spun around and threw him upward, gripping his tail hard enough to break it instead of letting him go. As he turned to shoot me, I flew up to him with Exile and Nightfall as wingblades, blocking everything until I got close and rapidly struck him with each of the eight wingblades. After breaking through whatever passes as a defense in his case, I channelled some Darkness into a downward swing, sending him crashing into the ground.
I dropped down, putting Lionheart away and changing Exile back into it's original form. I poured a bit of Dark Dust onto Exile as I approached him, he tried to lunge at me with his Semblance, but I parried it with Nightfall before impaling his hand to the wall. He kept switching between laughing and shouting at me as I quickly did the same to his other hand.
"I almost pity you, no one is just naturally insane like you are." I said as I aimed Exile at his chest.
"GggrrrhehehehahaHHHAAAHHAAHAHAHHAHHHAAA!" Was his only response.
"Is that the only way you can communicate now?" Robin asked.
"You're all going to die soon, hehehe. My Mistress will see to that soon enough! HaHaHAHAHHHAAAHHAAHHAAAHHHAAA!"
"Yeah, I'm just going to end it now." I said as I gripped Exile.
"Our Goddess is upon us!!! My death will-" I slashed his throat before thrusting Exile into his chest. I heard something behind me as Tyrian was fading away. Qrow and Clover arrived too late, they looked on in shock as they saw a heart rise from Tyrian before he completely faded away.
"You already killed him?" Clover asked in disbelief.
"Figures." Qrow complained as I grabbed Tyrian's heart, striking it with Exile and setting it ablaze with Dark Firaga.
"I just did you both a favor. I can guarantee at least one of you would've died otherwise." I told them as Clover got on the radio.
"This is Clover, Tyrian has been neutralized. Awaiting further orders... We're on our way." He turned to us. "He wants us to return to the academy."
"What? But there's still Grimm in the city!" Robin protested.
"Thanks to the kid, the wall has been closed off for the most part, and thanks to that new Dust, our soldiers can take care of the Grimm with ease while evacuating the civilians. Orders are orders."
"In that case,-" I opened a portal to the rest of my team. "I might have a short cut." I walked through to find Weiss and the rest of the teams. "Weiss, think of Winter." I changed Nightfall into it's original form and held it with her.
"Cassiel??? What are you-"
"Winter! Now!" Light shot out and another portal was opened. "Good! You may yet have keyblade potential!"
(Ironwood's office)
Ironwood was startled by our entrance, but relaxed a little upon seeing who arrived. He sat back down in his chair, he looked exhausted, afraid, doesn't help he's injured right now, his left arm bandaged and in a cast.
"It's only you." He let out a sigh of relief.
"What's got you so worked up? I'd say everything has gone just as I planned." I said. He placed a black chess piece on his desk, it was made of glass. Black... Glass... WHERE'S THE RAID???!!!
"We have made a critical error." He responded. "The black queen was the symbol Salem showed us before we lost everything. Her way of telling us she was inside, that it was too late. We stopped Watts, we stopped Callows, but someone was here! They put this in my office to tell me that- what if Mantle was just a distraction? What if it was just to draw us away from the academy to-"
"General Ironwood, we need you to slow down and tell us exactly what's going on." Jaune tried to calm him down a little.
"Cinder, that's what Tyrian meant when he specifically said 'hurt' instead of 'killed'! Get Winter back here now!" I told him.
"She's going to claim the power of the Winter Maiden now! We need to-"
"Cinder only knows that the Maiden is here, she doesn't know who or where specifically, and Winter is leading her right to the Maiden! I can reach the Maiden undetected and either kill her myself or bring her to Winter, and unlike you people, I don't need the Maidens to reach the Relics!" I tried to convince him.
"And how do we know that isn't part of Salem's plan either? She's been one step ahead of us this entire time!"
"Panicking isn't going to help you either! If we kill Cinder, this war will turn in our favor, especially if we get the Fall Maiden on our side!" Immediately after I said that, something shot out of the bag on his desk, a sphere-shaped Grimm with red tendrils. I immediately shot it with Lionheart and it broke, falling to the floor. A couple seconds later, black smoke rose from the Grimm.
"The brave Huntsmen and Huntresses bested Arthur Watts. Congratulations." A voice said as the smoke shaped itself to look like Salem.
"Killed Tyrian too, and this time, I'm making sure Cinder dies." I said as I held Exile and Nightfall.
"Hmm." She leaned towards me to get a better look. "So you're the one who killed Adam, Hazel, united the Faunus and humanity, and even killed Tyrian? Cinder was right when she said you would've made a valuable asset to us had you joined us when she offered." She looked at the keyblades. "An interesting choice of weaponry." She commented. "However, the goals of Arthur and Tyrian were never victory, but merely to set the stage."
"For what?" Ironwood asked, fearfully.
"For me." She answered as she approached him. "Time isn't on your side James, it's always been on mine. The people of Atlas have suffered enough! Surrender the Staff and the Lamp to me and they needn't suffer any further."
"That's... Not going to happen." Ironwood refused her 'mercy'. Salem leaned towards him.
"Simply accept the futility of your situation, and this can all be over."
"Desperation hidden behind intimidation. You feel your presence here is absolutely necessary to your victory, either that, or you want to use the Relics as soon as possible." She turned her attention to me. "If it's the latter though, the 'why' eludes me."
"You believe me to be desperate?" She asked.
"I alone have killed most of your servants, the last two I know of aren't a threat. The Lamp showed us everything, we're a lot alike you and I. Rather, I would've done everything that turned you into the monster you've become had I been in a similar situation. You have an inexhaustible army of creatures that may as well be death incarnate, any number of them could be like that Dragon at Beacon, or even make that look like a gnat."
"Get on with it." She said.
"You already have everything you need to conquer the world, you don't need strategy when you're perfectly capable of outlasting your enemies, especially when any number of your Grimm are capable of overrunning entire cities alone. You don't want genocide, otherwise you would've done it for the same reasons. So why do you want the Relics? Revenge against the Brothers? Freedom from your curse? Revive your children? Whatever you meant on that night by 'remaking humanity'? That is what I can't figure out. Care to enlighten us?" I asked her.
"..."
"No? Very well. You're desperate, your presence shouldn't be needed here, the simple fact that you're coming here right now tells me this is the turning point of this little war of yours. Just because you supposedly can't be killed, doesn't mean you can't be beaten. I think she knew that too."
"I did not believe arrogance to be a trait you would display so openly."
"You didn't have those red lines or whatever that's supposed to be on your forehead from what the Lamp showed us. Either that's a side effect of something, or that's damage that never healed. If it's the latter, then someone came close to permanently killing you, and I intend to finish the job." I continued as I showed her my eye.
"No matter what you may believe, all you will accomplish is death in a war not your own. A futile effort, though I look forward to seeing if you can make it this far." She said before she faded.
"That's Salem??? That's who we're up against???" Marrow said, fearfully.
"And she's apparently on her way." Harriet said.
"But we'd be alerted if any forces approached the kingdom!" Elm said.
"You mean like how we detected the Grimm in Mantle? Or was there nothing for that? Either way, if Watts shut it down, or if they've been destroyed, then they're not exactly helping us." I pointed out.
"We have long range proximity alarms all across the coast!" She continued.
"It's as Cassiel said, we didn't notice with all the chaos." Vine said, looking at his scroll.
"With Amity not yet complete, we can't get assistance from the other kingdoms, so our options are to bet everything in an attempt to win this battle, or use the Staff to lift Atlas high enough that Grimm can't touch it, but that would leave Mantle and Remnant behind. If we can safely lower Atlas into the crater it had to have risen from, we can use the Staff to create a barrier or a weapon, maybe use it to transport everyone somewhere else. We could also use my portals to evacuate as many as we can from Atlas to either Menagerie or the island of Patch using the same method I used with Weiss with Blake, Ruby, or Yang if that won't work." I listed our options.
"You can't seriously be considering abandoning Mantle??!!" Robin said in disbelief.
"All those people would be left to fend for themselves." Ren said.
"You can't honestly think becoming a monster will help anyone???" Nora asked.
"You would be leaving Mantle to die!" Blake said, looking between me and Ironwood.
"Yes... I would." Ironwood said, almost emotionless. "We can't allow Salem to capture the Relics. This is our best chance at getting the Staff, the Lamp, and the Maiden as far away from her as possible."
"But, we have an opportunity to reunite the world! If we launch the tower, we can all work together again! If we can hold out long enough-" Ruby tried to plead with him.
"Sometimes... Doing the right thing... Means making tough decisions." He interrupted her.
"I didn't know the right thing meant forsaking your oath, both as a Huntsman and a soldier." I gripped my keyblades tighter.
"He's right, and I think the right thing to do would be to stand our ground." Blake refused to go along with him.
"Me too." Yang sided with us.
"Me too." Weiss defied him.
"Me too." Ruby followed their examples.
"I'm not abandoning these people!" Robin readied her crossbow.
"I'm stickin' with these kids, Jimmy." Qrow gripped his weapon. Ruby turned towards the Ace Ops.
"We ran ourselves ragged, trying to save Mantle tonight. We try that again against an even larger force-" Harriet tried to say.
"But you're Huntsmen and Huntresses!" Yang interrupted. "You can't just back down from a fight!"
"We can't focus on one single fight when trying to win a war." Vine said.
"And this fight can cripple Salem, maybe even kill her!" I tried to convince them.
"What's the council going to say?" Weiss asked.
"Nothing." Ironwood answered. "Once I declare Martial Law."
"No." Weiss said, unable to believe she just heard that.
"What about everyone else??!!" Blake asked.
"Who exactly are you loyal to?" Elm asked us.
"I never claimed loyalty to anyone but my team! It's for that reason that I'm with them in trying to save everyone!" I answered her.
"We're saving everyone we can, and you're standing in our way." Ironwood said, almost like he truly doesn't care.
"You can save everyone, but you're running away instead. Are you telling yourself that because you can't admit you're too afraid to face Salem? Or are you telling yourself that so you won't feel as guilty about abandoning everyone on Remnant?" I asked him. "I believe you were there when I said something like this to Ozpin. If you abandon Mantle, if you abandon Remnant, consequences be damned, I will kill as many people as I have to as long as you are one of them! So long as you die the traitor's death you'll deserve! And if that means I have to steal the Staff, then so be it!" I changed Nightfall into wingblades and aimed Lionheaft at him. He just walked past us, he's ignoring me. I don't know if I should feel insulted or if I should feel something else.
"I'm sorry it's come to this, but until Atlas and the Relics are safe, you're all under arrest." He walked towards the door.
"We won't let you take us." Ruby said, defiantly.
"I know." He left. Did he... Did he seriously just disregard a guy with a gun aiming right at him? I lowered Lionheart and opened the SR.
"I'm going to see Oscar, then the Maiden, then I'm killing Cinder. I'm sure you all have this." I left them to fight the Ace Ops. 9 against 5, I'm sure they've got this. I'll deal with Ironwood later.
Jinn, Maiden, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do.