Chapter 212: Melancholy

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Melancholy

Your level has increased by one!

You have obtained the item 'Argus.'

You have obtained the item 'Hera.'

You have obtained the skill book 'Evil Eye.'

You have obtained the item 'Tyrfing.'

You have obtained the skill book 'Pack Instincts.'

You have obtained the item 'Phantom Queen.'

You have obtained the skill book 'Cloak of Night.'

"God, what a day," Adam groaned as we returned to our room, Raven having dropped us off after a few more hours of training. I was still okay, personally, but Adam was right—it had been a pretty long twenty-four hours. Cinder, Grimm, Atlas, Ironwood, Ozpin, and then back to Grimm for a few more rounds. Even if the physical exhaustion was removed from the equation, there was the mental strain of fighting for prolonged periods of time and the simple worry that everything would do to hell. It was enough to get to a person.

Not me, of course—which was a good thing, seeing as my life nowadays waffled between those two states of being. But I didn't dare put Adam and Raven at risk, and after most of a day spent fighting, they could well start making mistakes from sleep deprivation or mental exhaustion. Seeing as my rate of growth had begun slowing down again, I deemed that it was as good a time as any for a well-deserved rest. Not that I would be resting, of course; there was no rest for the wicked and those assholes had enough advantages without outworking me. I'd spend my time working, as per usual.

"And you didn't even have to deal with the worst of it," I said to Adam as I took a seat on my bed and started sorting things out. I'd killed an enormous number of Grimm today, even without counting those slain by the Brahmastra, and I'd made sure to collect the spoils as well. Most of them were as expected, with a great deal of it being Lien—which, honestly, was of fairly limited use to me. I mean, money was money, but after a certain point you had to wonder about the value of a buck. I was self-sufficient, allied with the leaders of three of the Kingdoms, the unofficial leader of a major terrorist organization, the teammate of a woman who could create portals, and my family was fairly well to-do to begin with. The number of digits I had in my Inventories bank account was practically irrelevant, seeing as I could just ask my friends to get me anything I happened to want or need. Which, at this point, was really just Dust and I'd already sent out the word on that front.

Seeing the number on my status screen, though, I couldn't help but wish for something as convenient as an item shop. Well, I say that, but generally speaking I didn't rely on equipment except to support my natural abilities—by and large, I didn't need to. A boost to my Elemental Affinities was always useful and my father's last gift, Kronos, was invaluable, but while something like the sword I'd given Adam was convenient, it wasn't particularly necessary for me. The ability to use Grass Cutter without knowing the skill itself was quite handy…but I'd figured I'd be able to just learn the skill itself, or something like it. And I had. Really, the most useful items—to me, at least—were also the ones I didn't dare use.

Speak of which, I added Argus to my growing collection of Grimm masks with another internal sigh. There was undoubtedly a staggering amount of power there…but damn was it suspicious. And dangerous. And probably a trap.

And still tempting. I liked shiny things—so sue me.

"I guess not," Adam admitted, looking at me with a glance of concern. "You okay?"

I paused in the midst of sorting through my Inventory and turned to look at my friend, surprised by the question.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked, frowning slightly.

He shrugged.

"First Cinder," He began to list. "Then Atlas. Then Ozpin…I don't know. That's a lot to handle, even for you, and now things are starting—I guess I was worried you might be a little shaken up. I think anyone would be."

Adam spoke with a touch of uncertainty that I'd never heard in his voice before and I knew, even without my Empathy, that he was worried to. Which was the same as being smart, in this case; we'd just confirmed the existence of at least one Rider, maybe encountered another, fought with hordes of super-Grimm, and it was all in preparation of the fight for our lives. We were unraveling a millennia old mystery and might finally be approaching the truth—but while it was said that the truth would set you free, it occurred to me that sometimes what it frees you from might be the mortal coil. The apocalypse may well have been around the corner and our actions could stop it or kick start it; there was no real way to know.

Being a little worried about things made sense—and it didn't escape my notice that most of those concerns were mine.

For a moment, I thought about saying something casually insulting and smugly reassuring, backhandedly reminding Adam of my strength and telling him that there was nothing to worry about while also turning this conversation towards friendly, dickish banter. I was pretty good at that; one of the advantages of having so much time to thing.

But I didn't.

"I met Blake," I said instead. "She's at Beacon now."

Adam stilled for a long moment. His mouth opened as if to speak, but he couldn't seem to force out the words, and after a moment he closed it and pursed his lips.

"Oh?" He whispered at last.

I nodded, respectfully giving no sign of noticing his reaction, even though we both knew that was bullshit.

"I told her I'd tell you she was doing well, if I saw you again," I continued. "And she is. She's happy there, in her own way. She's on a team with Ruby, Yang, and Weiss Schnee. I have to admit, that surprised me a bit."

"Yeah," Adam said, giving a jerky nod. "Did you…does she know?"

"I didn't tell her," I answered before bobbing my head to the side. "Not really, anyway. But I didn't lie. I was…not worried, exactly, but…"

"Yeah," Adam said again. "Yeah."

"I told her enough that she probably knew on some level that somethings going on," I admitted. "Even if she chose to believe there wasn't. And I think that's what made me sure that she was happy where she was. I'd worried that with her background…well, that maybe things hadn't turned out quite the way she'd hoped. If she'd wanted to come back, I'd…"

I shook my head, looking down for a moment.

"I'm not sure what I'd have done," I mused. "I wasn't asking for her help, really. What we were doing now, where we're headed…we'd just be putting her in danger. She's better off with her friends and when she didn't accept, I felt relieved. But still…"

"I get it," He said, leaning his head back against the backboard of his bed. "I…yeah. I'm glad. That she's happy and…and safe. I could never give her either of those things, not really. She'd always dreamed of a world I could never even believe in. But she was still…I've looked after her since she was a kid, for God's sake."

I nodded.

"I'm worried," I told him. "About what's happened…and going to happen. I guess seeing her again made me think about it a bit. For a moment, I thought that it wouldn't make a difference if she came along or not; Blake, my sisters, everyone—they're all involved in this, even if they don't know it. The fact that they aren't a part of our group won't cause Malkuth show them any mercy, much less any of the Grimm. And yet I was still glad she didn't…and still worried."

I smiled for a moment, pausing to shrug.

"I guess…" I continued. "Now that we're going to face Jericho Falls and…not necessarily strike against them, but do something…I'm expecting a response and I'm a little worried it'll be more than I can handle. That I could mess it up now, after everything."

Adam was silent for a long moment before replying.

"A little?" He asked.

At that, my smile widened again, easing slightly.

"Just a tiny bit," I said with a perfectly straight face. "I am pretty awesome, after all. It'll probably be fine."

"We're pretty awesome," Adam corrected, shrugging easily. I could tell he felt, if not exactly reassured, then at least at ease now. "And yeah, we'll manage. I mean, we can't let that asshole win, right?"

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"Fuck no," I replied. "If nothing else, we have to win simply to throw it in Malkuth's smug prick face. And damn but I can't let him kill me again—that'd just be embarrassing. I mean, kill me once? Shame on you. But kill me twice? Shame on me."

"That's the spirit," Adam drawled. "So what did you have in mind, Jaune? Because those guys aren't going to kick themselves in the dick."

I smiled at that and inclined my head.

"Right now, I've mainly just been plotting out the basics," I admitted. "I'm fairly confident that everything will go to hell in short order, so I'm limiting it to things I can control. Say that this is Jericho Falls."

I gestured with a hand, conjuring an image of some ruins. Needless to say, I'd never seen Jericho Falls myself and only had what few photographs people had survived long enough to take, but that didn't matter at this point—and, if things went as I figured they would, I was fairly doubtful the architecture would survive long enough for in-depth knowledge of the floor plans to be useful. As such, I just used my imagination to fill in the blanks, along with details stolen from other ruins I'd seen, but didn't bother overdoing it. I did, however, add a multitude of dark spots indicating the hordes of Grimm in and around the structure.

"It's hard to say anything for sure yet, seeing how little we know," I continued. "But once we approach, I'll scan the area for anything important. From what we do know, however, we aren't after anything on this side of things—we're after what in the dimensional barrier, which makes things simplier."

I made a copy of the ruins and changed the background to that of a city, removing all the Grimm in the process. Adam glanced it over and then raised an eyebrow.

"How so?" He asked.

"Because it means I don't give a fuck about any of this shit," I answered cheerfully, waving a hand through the first image. "Unless it turns out that the barrier is tied to something on this side or that there's something else in the ruins we care about? Screw it—I'll drop a Brahmastra on it as an opening move."

I replaced the first illusion with one of a massive explosion, sticking as closely as I could to the one I'd witnessed earlier, minus the blinding light. This time, I did go into detail, illustrating how the ruins were consumed and eradicated in an explosion of horrifying glory. Why? Because it made me happy.

"Kill them all and let God sort them out?" Adam mused.

"Damn straight," I replied. "With any luck, Brahmastra will clear out most of the riffraff and hurt the big guys enough to make them easier pickings. I'm extremely doubtful that it'll work on all of them, even if I have a week to improve it and it naturally levels up fast—but still. Most of these guys should be gone and whatever order or hierarchy is in place will hopefully be disrupted. I'll pick off who I can as we approach, as well, which will hopefully do something to thin the herd."

"Reducing an army of ravenous murder machines to a handful of really, really badass murder machines," Adam noted, frowning slightly. "I take it we'll need to kick their teeth in if we want to get inside?"

"Pretty much," I confirmed. "We might be able to get past them, but frankly, after Conquest? I'd be more surprised if they couldn't follow us in. I'm willing to bet that the only reason everything inside the barrier remains is because the Grimm can't afford to break it. I thought of using that against them and maybe drawing the fight inside to force them to hold back, but—"

"But we'd need to hold back, too," Adam interrupted me with a nod. "That's the downside of trying to use a hostage like that—sure, they can't afford to endanger it, but neither can we."

"Exactly," I agreed. "With no idea what we're up against, I can't gamble like that—and if something were to happen to it, even accidentally, I have a feeling it would end badly. Malkuth's been playing softball because he still needs me alive for something; if I ruin any chance of me actually doing that, I expect my net worth might depreciate and that I'm likely to get a bunch of very unpleasant visitors. I'm not sure if the rest of the world would enjoy it, either."

"We break the computer, they break us," He summed up. "Simple enough—as long as the barrier doesn't break. You sure that won't be an issue?"

"Pretty sure," I nodded. "I'm almost certain that it's a dimensional barrier like Naraka, which means it's not a barrier like a shield that can break from damage alone—it's more like…it's really hard to explain, honestly; most of the principles don't translate very well. But it's more like the separation of one moment and the next, but with space instead of time. Or space and time, really. And honestly, it's less like creating a barrier to keep anything out and more like making one to keep us in. Or separated. Or ahead. It's complicated; the point is that it shouldn't break."

"Then we should be able to go all out," Adam murmured, shifting to get a better look at the illusion. As it was now, it was fairly simple—a blasted wasteland with colored dots on it. "Of course they will be able to as well, which could be an issue if they're as strong as…well, let's face it, as strong as we all think they're going to be."

"Mhm," I agreed. "And at the center of it all, I suspect there'll be Gilgamesh. And he's probably going to be the worst thing we've ever faced. Possibly by a lot. The way things seem to be going, if his level was in the two hundreds, I wouldn't be surprised."

Adam grunted at that, considering the map as he imagined the fight progressing.

"You think you can take him?" He asked.

I took a slow breath and considered it. I had my fair share of advantages, even with the odds stacked against me. A few trump cards, a few secrets, a few tricks—and even with all that, I couldn't be sure of anything. But…

"I'll handle it," I said firmly, resolving myself to make it true.

Adam nodded sharply.

"Then I take it you want us to run interference and deal with whatever assholes didn't have the good grace to fuck off and die?" Adam guessed.

"I'll try to take out as many as I can," I said. "After taking a hit from the Brahmastra, they should all be at least a little weakened and trust me when I say that thing can throw you for a loop. But after Gilgamesh appears—which I'm betting will be quickly—I don't know how much support I'll be able to provide. If I'm lucky, I might have chances to line up a few shots or kill those who happened to get too close. But if I'm not…I might be busy doing all I can just to stay a step ahead."

Or alive. But that didn't really need to be said.

"Think you can take them?" I returned his question after a moment of silence and he raised another eyebrow.

"I'll handle it," He assured calmly.

I smiled at that, though it felt a little forced. He was calm, though, and seemed certain about what he was doing—which surprised me more than anything else, because I was plenty fucking worried.

"You've got a plan?" I asked him.

He grunted and shrugged.

"Making a plan with so many unknowns sounds like a pain in the ass," He stated. "I'll just do what I always do."

"What's that?" I asked, holding back all of the witty remarks that sprang to mind. This was serious, he was serious, and so I would be, too.

Adam looked at me for a moment and then huffed out a laugh, giving me a very small but sincere smile.

"I'll just do my part and believe in your strength," He stated, before shaking his head self-deprecatingly. "I've been doing that for a while now, but…I figure you'll make ends meet, like you always do. So I'll just fight with everything I've got and make sure I don't mess things up for you. So kill that asshole quickly, okay?"

"…Got it," I answered confidently. "Just hold out as long as you can."

Adam shrugged and smirked.

"Don't worry about me too much," He said. "I've got some stuff I've been saving for a rainy day—some gifts from Raven."

I glanced down to his side, looking at where Wilt and Blush hung beside the sword I'd given him.

"I see," I answered. "I was going to talk to Raven about her blades, anyway—if there was ever a time to go wild with Dust, I'd say it's now."

"Seems like it," Adam agreed with a drawl. "And I've still got some points to spend. I'll see what else I can come up with in a week."

"Yeah," I said. "I've got a few points of my own, as well. We don't have a lot of time left now, but still, it should be enough to make a difference. And once we've got everything set, we'll go in and annihilate everything that gets in our way. I go in, take everything I can, and hopefully figure out the next step to hitting all of our enemies where it hurts. Then we leave behind a smoldering ruin to tell them all to go fuck themselves."

"And then we celebrate," Adam said. "Drinks are on you."

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