Chapter 218: Expansion

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.

Expansion

The explosions of the Brahmastras had thrown me high, further into the air than the portal Raven had used to drop me off initially. I waited for a moment, already working to refill the emptied slots of Patientia—and gladdened by the fact that nothing immediately tried to kill me. I could tell already that I hadn't killed all of the Grimm, but it was always nice to know that my enemies couldn't outright brush off my best attacks. They'd been stunned, if only for a few minutes. Even better, the dimensional barrier that existed alongside Jericho Falls had been unaffected by the blasts. I'd been almost certain it'd be fine, but not completely.

Time to move on to the next step. I focused my attention on my Aura for a brief moment and then sent a shudder through it, releasing a signal towards my distant target. A moment later, I felt her attention on me and two more portals swirled to life at my sides. Adam strode quickly through one while Autumn, Raven, and Gou entered through the other. I caught each as they walked into open air, supporting them with my power.

"God we're high," Adam noted. "When you said we'd be dropping in, you meant that literally, didn't you?"

"Yes," I answered simply.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Whatever," He said after a moment, focusing his eyes on the massive clouds below. "You really didn't hold back, did you? Did you even leave any for us?"

"I didn't hold back specifically in the hopes of not leaving anyone for you," I replied. "And you shouldn't hold back either, because I failed."

It wasn't a surprise, not hardly. I'd been all but sure going in that I wouldn't be able to take them all out with my opening move; it was why I'd worked so hard to grind Patientia to its next bench mark and then loaded it with all the Brahmastras I had available. If I'd been certain that the Grimm would be hit hard enough to stop them long enough for me to do so, I would have waited another day, charged a fourth Brahmastra, and hit them even harder—but the sight before my eyes kind of made me glad I hadn't taken any chances.

All throughout the ruins, Grimm rose. They were few in number, thankfully, and many of them looked badly hurt—but they were there, standing back up after I sucker-punched them with three of my greatest attacks. If I'd had a fourth, I might have gotten a few more, but…

My gaze drifted towards the leader of the pack. Location hadn't much of an issue when it came to my Brahmastra's; even a single one had the range necessary to cover Jericho Falls. Even so, I'd aimed the spears with the intention of inflicting as much damage as possible to the largest threats, figuring that the lesser ones would be wiped out regardless. And if they were, well, I would have sent Raven the other signal. If more than a handful of the Grimm could walk away from a trio of Brahmastras to the face, we would have been in way, way over our heads and the only logical thing to do would be to run the fuck away. As it was, the numbers were acceptable. Not ideal—that would have required me to have killed everyone—but not as bad as they could have been.

Beyond the amount of surviving riffraff, however, there was another important thing I'd needed to check—just how strong the legendary Gilgamesh really was.

The results on that front had been at once expected and worrying.

The creature my power had identified as Gilgamesh did, if fact, look fairly human. He was a man of middling height, with a stock of almost shockingly dark hair, set up in spikes. His skin was as dark as most of the Grimm, where it wasn't covered by his bone-white armor. He carried a simple looking sword at his side, made of the same material as his body, and his face—assuming he had a face beneath it—was covered by a simple mask. It was more elaborate than most of the masks I'd seen, carved like porceline to give the impression of a calm human face.

Except for the eyes, of course. There were as red as an of the Grimm's, and staring right up at me. Gilgamesh didn't seem impressed, excited, or even worried to see me, not that it was easy to gauge the emotions of the Grimm; if anything, he simply looked expectant.

Worse, he didn't look particularly hurt, either. He hadn't quite shrugged off the blows and I could see the wounds it had left when it had seared at his flesh and armor—but he wasn't exactly falling apart, either. His limbs were all where they were supposed to be, his eyes were still in his head, and all told, he looked shockingly intact for a guy who I'd made sure had taken the worst of the blasts. It was a little off-putting, truthfully. I mean, I hadn't honestly expected to take him out with my first attack, but I'd kind of been hoping for a bit more of a reaction then 'Ow, that hurt. Why would you do such a thing?'

But now that I'd seen the results, I had to decide how to proceed from here. From the beginning I'd known that Grimm's reaction to my attacks big part of gauging our readiness for the battle and I was pleased to note that most of the Grimm looked worse for wear. They were injured enough that I was fairly certain I could defeat any one of them in battle. But Gilgamesh was another matter and seeing him standing there wasn't particularly encouraging. If he was honestly that tough…

"Jaune?" Raven asked, concern edging its way into her voice. "Are we proceeding?"

I kept my attention focused on my target even as I turned my physical eyes towards my friends.

"Most of the Grimm were hurt badly by the blast," I said seriously, readying myself to respond to any sudden moves. "But it seems Gilgamesh is made of sterner stuff."

"Obviously," Adam snorted. "We knew he would be."

"How bad is it?" Raven asked.

"Nowhere near as bad as it could have been," I admitted. "He's not unhurt, after all—if he had been, I'd have called this off immediately. On the other hand, he's not as hurt as I would have liked, either. Though, granted, none of them are as hurt as I would have liked. They're alive and everything."

"But you think we can win?" Raven asked. "Don't you?"

"Of course I do," I answered confidently. "Just wanted to tell you all the facts before we began, in case you had any doubts."

"I have doubts," She stated. "But it's rare to find a battle worth fighting where you're already certain of the outcome. If you stay, I stay."

"Didn't we have this conversation already?" Adam asked, managing to sound bored.

I smiled at them both, unsurprised, before looking past them.

"I asked before, but…is it really alright to go along with my selfish desires? Autumn?" I asked. "Gou?"

There was more to the words than I'd spoken, because there was particular weight in this battle for these two. Gou's intelligence—and even his selfhood—had resulted from his connection to me, and there was no guarantee that it would survive my death; any time I gambled my life, I had to keep in mind that I could very well be gambling his, too. Autumn, furthermore, was still a child, if an exceptionally powerful and intelligent one thanks to her nature. She had a life ahead of her, as well as behind; if something should happen here, she was arguably risking just as much as Gou. Her future and Summer's past, her chance at making a new life or finding the things she'd lost in the old, they all depended on her surviving this fight.

In the end, they were risking their futures for the sake of my past.

"I'm not afraid of death, so long as we're together," Autumn whispered, her voice odd as usual. "I've died and scattered once—but if I'm to die again, I'd rather stay by your side. And I'd rather fight beside you then be left behind."

"It's fine," Gou answered casually. "If we die, we'll simply find each other in the afterlife."

I closed my eyes, still smiling, and then reached out to the final members of my team. They'd been there since the beginning, silently supporting me, but they were risking as much as Gou in all of this.

And you? Tell me, is it really alright? Crocea Mors, Levant, Suryasta, Xihai, Vulturnus, Ereb—you've been supporting me for so long and you've always had my back. But if I die, you…

The answer came to my quickly, as half a dozen voices whispered in my ear.

Until our soul meets its end, we will be forever one.

"That settles it, then," I said, opening my eyes again. "Thank you—all of you. Now…let's go kick some monster ass."

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And with that said, I simply stopped holding us in the air.

We fell as one for a moment, staying briefly even as gravity kept us in its hold—but we just as quickly went our separate ways as we adopted our own landing strategies. Raven and I chose to simply hurry towards the earth, with her conjuring up a portal to fall through while I hastened my descent through simple will. Above and behind me, I felt Gou begin to bloat, choosing to simply take the fall, while Autumn's cloak billowed out as her own mass spread into flowering shapes that caught the air, turning her fall into a controlled glide. I could see her releasing seeds and spores already, aiming them towards anything they could grow upon and using her slowed descent to aid in the process. I took it a step further, helping her along with Levant's winds, even as I picked out valuable targets. With her power and our connection, I was fairly confident it would come in handy later on in the fight.

Adam, meanwhile, simply fell, even as he began gathering power into his sheathed blade. I knew he planned to make up for his pedestrian fall by making an entrance and a part of me was looking forward to it.

Not that I had any intention of letting him one-up me in that regard, of course.

I hit the ground first, plowing into the earth like a meteor. The ground rippled for a moment, my Shockwave extending outwards before the solidity of the ground seemed to catch up to it and it instead shattered violently, all but exploding all around me. I didn't hesitate to take advantage of that, either, mentally willing Ereb to guide the shrapnel where it could do the most damage, even as I kept my eyes focused on my target, meeting the solid red orbs of my enemy.

A portal appeared above me a moment after the stone shards exploded outwards, and Raven appeared by my side, hand calmly resting on her blade.

"Shall we start the festivities before they arrive?" She asked, flicking a gaze upwards towards the sky. Already, Gou's form had grown massive enough to shade us from the sun and he still had kilometers to go before he touched the ground.

"It'd be rude to keep our friends here waiting," I answered, rising slowly from my kneeling position on the ground. "Can you imagine how long they've been waiting here to die?"

"True," Raven acknowledged, smiling fiercely. Her gaze shifted playfully amongst the remaining Grimm, flicking quickly from one to the next. "But which one should I kill?"

I clicked my tongue and sent her a disapproving glance that did nothing to take my attention away from our foes.

"You're a Huntress, Raven," I said. "There's no point in being picky—just kill them all."

"Hm…" Raven hummed back, taking several slow steps forward. With every word we spoke, the shadow around us grew larger and darker, it's steady progression evidently enough to keep even the Grimm at bay. In a matter of moments, Gou was just above us, his monumental figure prepared to crash into into the blasted ruin hard enough the shatter it all over again.

The moment before it did, Raven and I both moved. For her part, she strode several steps forward, pushing off with the last into a newly opened gateway and flickering back into existence right behind on of the Grimm around us. Meanwhile, I simply willed myself forward, vanishing as I Fluctuated.

Gou's landing was deafeningly loud, ludicrously attention drawing, and amazingly destructive—and we both intended to take advantage of it. I reappeared directly behind Gilgamesh, drawing power into my hands and lashing out mercilessly at his back. In my left hand, I forged Longinus, the space-rending spear's tip aimed for Gilgamesh's head, while in my right, I gathered orbs of light, cycling them in preparation of the inevitable.

And at the last moment, Gilgamesh moved. His body blurred as he turned on a dim, bone-sword coming up to cleave at my neck like the reaper's scythe. I didn't flinch, staring down the blade even as I felt my heartbeat quicken—and continued with my own attack. I flung Longinus towards his left eye from as close as I could manage, silently daring him to abort his attack or take the blow. At the last possible second, he twitched once, angling his face away from the blow and letting it instead cut a clean line across his cheek, sending up sparks as it carved through the material.

At the same time, his attack struck my neck, breaking the surface of my skin and swiping clean through, casually removing my head from my shoulders. Not only that, but the force of the blow was so great and its passage through my body so disruptive, that the stumps on both sides bent and ruptured, giving me a feeling of exploding grotesquely. I felt myself come apart as I was nearly blown apart by the strike—

And then I came back together. It wasn't just the usual nature of the Gamer's Body, either—no, I felt myself flow back into place, like water refilling a vessel.

Exactly like that, in fact.

Varuna (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ancient technique named after its user, one of the Apauruseya of Vytal. The man that became known as Varuna was born was born to the raging might of the sea, in a land of endless storms and waves. As its waters flooded the lands of Remnant, Varuna heard a song within the sea and answered it with his own, calming its rage and taking it within himself. Though lost to the receding grip of the ocean, Varuna soon returned, reborn from the power he used to hold back the seas. In time, he joined the ranks of the legendary god-kings of Vytal, having internalized the part of himself that he had sacrificed to the sea in order to reach for new heights of power.

Water Affinity rises to Max.

The user of this skill is immune to Water Elemental attacks and has increased resistance to physical attacks.

Active MP-based skills that do not naturally share an affinity with an Element way be given the Water Element at no additional cost.

Only those with a Water Elemental may use this skill.

A Water Elemental may not be manifested while this skill is active.

Only one Elemental may be merged with in this fashion at a given time.

Even as I came back together, my now liquid form piecing itself back together from a storm of droplets, I continued to reach out with my right hand, grasping Gilgamesh's face and firing unleashing the full might of Lux Aeterna. The blast plunged the world into darkness, drawing in all signs of light and devouring everything in its path. The torrent of light swept over Gilgamesh from point blank range, searing through the world at the speed of light—too quick to dodge from here even if his speed matched or surpassed my own. When the light returned the world, a scar of destruction glowed incandescently across the battered landscape, a glowing brand of power.

Gilgamesh grabbed my wrist and brought his sword around again, cutting through me from head to toe with force enough to make the rest of me explode into a rain of droplets. It hurt—not so much the injure, but the simple need to piece myself back together in its wake—but it had its own advantages and I had ways to compensate.

Coming back together, I Shed half a dozen skins, trailing a small river of water behind me all the while—a feat I'd once accomplished with Dust Eater, now performed with a simple combination of Bai Hu's ultimate skill and Varuna. I circled him once completely before running into and then over him, taking his next hit full on and then slipping through the streams I'd made as easily as air.

Then, without even looking, I snapped my fingers and froze the whole thing with a flash of Deposition, freezing both the water and the Grimm within it. Rotating on my heel, I flung a hand out towards it and shattered it, crushing the misshapen sphere of ice to powder.

There was a slight cracking noise as Gilgamesh lifted an arm in defense, the last of the ice cracking above his armor. Despite the series of hits, he hardly seemed injured, looking more annoyed than anything—and I was sure.

It wasn't just a matter of defensive ability, for all that he was durable as fuck—I could see how much damage each of my hits were doing and the results seemed familiar. No, more than that, while he didn't look like anything I recognized beneath the lens of my Third Eye, he appeared similar enough that I was pretty sure I was on the right track.

He—and perhaps all the Grimm, now that I thought about it—was made out of 'Unknown Matter,' like the kind I used with Kavacha, but different. How different, I wasn't sure, but it definitely wasn't the same material, even if it worked on similar principles. Anything I threw at him was going to get a big chunk of its power simply ignored.

I smiled.

Guess I'd just have to hit him harder, huh? It was a bit early, still, but…well, what was the point of having trump cards if you didn't use them. So let's start with this one, first.

I lifted my hand at him, gathering my returning strength, and exhaled a slow breath.

"Ohr Ein Sof," I said.

By raising Lux Aeterna to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Ohr Ein Sof.'

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