Chapter 11

[||||=LEVEL 11= ||||]

4 years 11 months in Remnant

6 months after Summer's death

"Abyss?"

"Yes?"

"How did mom die?"

"… she died fighting for Ozpin's dream. A woman named Ashaya Fall died to kill her."

"Was she in pain when she died?"

"Yes. Her lungs were flooded with blood and breathing further sliced her lungs and heart to ribbons… that she could speak at all was extraordinary. And painful.

"However… Pain doesn't mean she wasn't happy as she died."

"Wh-... What do you mean?"

"She died giving me power and a goal. She gave you me. She gave Tai closure. And she honored her promise to Yang to her last breath."

"Her promise?"

"To always come back home. To never leave her as Raven has."

"... I want mom to leave again. I want her to come back then. For real."

"... Summer won't be coming back. One day we can all go to her though. We just have to be patient."

[|||| == ||||]

"C'mon Ruby. Wake up."

"Mrblennnn…" I sighed and resorted to extreme tactics. I pushed her out of bed with motion mana and she fell onto the floor with a thump.

Blearily Ruby got up in a zombie like fashion and stumbled to the bathroom. I heated up the water since she was incapable of simple things without a shower.

It wasn't lack of sleep or stress or anything like that. Ruby was just the suckiest morning person I've ever seen right after how I used to be. I tried coffee once but besides her hating the taste of any coffee I can make made her get too hyper afterwards.

After five minutes of waking up under the water Ruby brushed her teeth and did all the girl stuff I didn't understand. I just shampooed, brushed my teeth, and used deodorant when I was a teen. Yang rubs off on her apparently.

She dressed in a red tee with some logo and a slogan. I disliked the logos like Summer did, and Raven too, I recently learned, but Ruby didn't mind if she was comfortable. I just shrugged it off now.

She scared down my breakfast and finally woke up in full. I glanced at the clock. Six forty eight. Two minutes early is alright. Ruby's school isn't super strict on attendance anyways. That attitude applied to most of Patch really.

Ruby tossed on some sneakers and began her jog to school. It used to be that Tai drove her but he had gotten a job at Signal and needed the car to carry things. I looked after Ruby when she was out.

I had taken it upon myself to train Ruby early since she had aura. She was becoming stronger slowly. I hadn't let her handle real weapons yet, but training was fair game.

I made sure to not push her harder than her growing body could take. I could encourage her body to grow more muscle with my budding life affinity, small as it may be. It helped to make growth more efficient as well.

Ruby was by no means a fighter yet. Her DEX was only at ten. Her strength was developing slower because of her body type. Only eight. Her INT and WIS were well above the norm at t fifteen and thirteen. She trained those herself.

I myself had only focused on my skills. I wanted a body soon. I occasionally trained my weapons skills but only gained a few levels in it. It was stress relief more than actual training.

Ruby had asked about weapons and while I had denied at first she swore up and down to be responsible with them to the highest degree. I took every precaution from a quiz on gun safety my most underused spell, mage armor, on her at all times.

Ruby aced the test of course. It was just common sense with guns and to show respect to them. She finished it no problem.

Very carefully I allowed her to test what guns I had in my inventory to see which she liked the best. Aura made sure she didn't break anything important and I fixed any bruises. Ruby didn't even notice most of them.

Of course she liked the sniper rifle the best. Then she wanted to try melee weapons. I forged some weapons like a scythe, sword, ace, and anything else I cared to think of and let Ruby have at it.

It was hilarious! She fell backwards with the axe and couldn't even lift it. The sword was messy because of the weight but not completely unmanageable (these are Ruby sized weapons by the way) and the scythe was an utter mess of getting it stuck in a tree.

The only weapon she was good with was the dagger and that was because anyone could use a dagger to some extent.

I made fun of her a bit and she complained that I made the weapons badly or something. Then I showed her a badly made weapon and she practically sung praises for me.

We both deeded to wait until Ruby was older and had real muscle on her before she tried weapons training. Next year should be fine. I don't know or really care if Crescent Rose becomes a reality. I did offer Ruby the suggestion to research weapons herself.

I should mention now that I spent most of my time in Ruby's soul space with merged souls. It grew both our affinities since apparently even though her affinities were locked due to locked mana she still had them.

Affinities were closely linked to semblance I believe so It's not very surprising. The only worthwhile affinity Ruby had was some wind to bring me up to eighty eight.

I told Ruby all about mana and magic earlier. The whole naked truth. She was understandably skeptical but what can you say to a guy who can summon a thunderstorm and teleported to prove his point?

I think the only things I didn't tell her about was Salem, the maiden's, and Raven. I did say that young women sometimes unlock mana but that it was extremely rare. Not really a lie.

Now it was a special day. I was going to make my body… And get rid of some of my ridiculous stat points. I truly don't need this many.

"Good luck at school today Ruby. I have important things to do and probably a surprise when you get home."

"Really?!" she thought in surprise. I hadn't let her have any free time to herself since Summer so it was understandable that she was surprised.

"Will… I'll be okay alone… Right?"

"Of course. It's school. Not a war zone. Go do all the stuff you normally do… Oh, and Miss Discalti has a pop quiz planned. She might use it today. And do your English homework no matter how boring conjugates are."

Ruby sent a tired confirmation and I separated from her slowly so she wasn't overwhelmed with her smaller soul. She still swayed and felt that sucky feeling of losing a majority of her aura.

"See you at home." I said. "Bye Abyss. See you later."

[|||| == ||||]

"I keep wondering… what now? With mom gone… do I want to follow her?

"..."

"If I do the same thing she did, follow the same path she went through, will I end up like her?"

"Ruby, what was your mother?"

"A huntress."

"No. She was a hero. She was a hero because she was willing to give up everything for the perceived greater good. All she ever wanted to do was stay here with you and Yang but she felt that fighting for a cause was more important than you or her own happiness."

"She wanted people to be happy… but she was… willing to sacrifice my happiness?"

"No. She was willing to sacrifice everything. Everyone. She would have done anything for the safety and happiness of Remnant. She had given up much already for the people. Your happiness, her happiness, your family's happiness, a peaceful life, and so much more."

"But… heroes are the good guys. They make others happy… right?"

"No. Heroes are those that sacrifice others for the greater whole even if it means they sacrifice themselves they would do it easily."

"... Are you a hero?"

"No. I would burn all of Remnant to ashes if it meant the people I care for were happy. I'm a villain."

"... I can't help but be thankful for that. Do you care about me?"

"Summer was the only person I truly cared about. She asked me in her final breath to save you. You're the only person I care about."

"... Thank you. I don't want anyone close to me to be a hero if it only leads to pain to the benefit of others… so I won't be a hero. I'll just be Ruby… I like that. I feel better. Thank you Abyss."

"Of course. I'm always here if you need anything."

[|||| == ||||]

I sighed and assigned my points. I brought INT to 250, WIS to 250, and LUK to 50.

*Ding!* By reaching 200 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Body of worlds

"I once saw a child make his hand to fire. That was the only time I ever felt true fear. For what power that child must have in both body and soul. "

-High sage Gall Yahldrell

-Affinities may be represented physically without mana cost

-Affinities with a final value greater than a hundred alter your body should you allow it.

*Ding!* By reaching 250 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Spirit

"Her soul was a beautiful cacophony of color and sight and sound. I just wish I could see it one more time."

-Samuel Silverthorne, courier

-Affinities may be unlocked or advanced through meditation

-Affinities may passively alter your semblance or the semblance of those which your soul is melded to should you allow it.

-There is no limit on how high your affinities may go

-Powerful mana sensing abilities

*Ding!* By reaching 200 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Potent mana

"Mana can, under immense pressure, coalesce into a denser type of mana."

-Elsa Dames, general mana researcher

-All spells are 20% more powerful

-All spells are 10% cheaper

*Ding!* By reaching 250 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Flood of mana

"Mana is the blood of a Mage. It is your life."

-Feralls Lier, professor of old Vale academy of magic

-2x mana and mana regeneration

*Ding!* By reaching 50 LUK a new skill has been acquired! - Gamble

"Lady luck is fickle if you're boring. Take risks. She loves that."

-Aaron Faust, jester of the old king of Mistral

-Chance of luck acting favorably in high risk situations

Oh? The INT skills are boring More mana is nice but not exactly useful. LUK is the same. Useful but not really anything I have to change my fighting style with. The wisdom skills are far more interesting. Not immediately useful but they offer opportunities, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Body of worlds allows me to basically copy Ashaya's semblance without cost so long as I have the affinity for it. By final affinity I believe it means after my multipliers. My higher soul and attuned skills both double my affinities so my wind affinity is effectively three hundred fifty two.

Spirit of worlds is a little more interesting for the moment. I can meditate on affinities and raise them. This lets me raise my affinities without finding a spell to grind it. I finally have a useful thing for my parallels to do other than grinding spells too! It also made my affinities lose any sort of cap they had before.

Most importantly of the two skills' functions, I can modify my semblance with elements. Whatever my semblance is I should meditate on it more and just hope on my higher LUK stat.

Of the most interesting of all of this is the capacity for alterations to a body given enough affinity. What could I get? Silver eyes from purity? I truly don't know but I want to.

Currently my total affinity in life is one hundred twelve. Impressive but considering I was trying to create life? Well… It's a lofty goal. My skill in grow is sixty two from the months of grinding. I had plotted out my new body with all the enhancements I could think of. I was something of a super faunus. A jaguar faunus in honor of my first body.

I had run as many numbers as I could and came to an irritating conclusion, though. I could only ever age myself to ten at most. At MOST. Around ten puberty begins to kick in and the hormones start to go crazy. Growing at insane speeds was alright for a while because magic could take the load but growing as fast as your body could on top of going hyper speed with magic? No. No that didn't work. Not with any amount of magic. I could speed it up a little bit to about two times the growth but human or faunus bodies didn't work like that. You couldn't just skip puberty.

I was instead going to just age myself to eight years old and age the rest normally. I would be two years older than Ruby (She turned six five months ago in february) and I'd attend beacon with her then. It didn't really make sense to

I would first grow the body. Simple enough. I had runes on a large stone nearby holding a large amount of mana as well if I need it. No I couldn't just store more mana in my soul space. It just didn't work that way. My soul would be holding more mana than I could handle and would eject mana again to equalize it, making the runes useless.

I would finally enchant a sub-dermal armor of carbon onto myself… no really, I would. Carbon was around everywhere. I just looked up some chemistry on the dustnet (internet but remnant style) and figured out how to make diamonds from coal. Some coal and an insane amount of air pressure and a tad of heat and boom. Diamonds to be implanted under my skin. Diamonds are carbon crystals by the way.

I was going to be a wizard with mad tattoos and bling out the ass. Not literally. Surgery wouldn't be very hard. Life affinity is so useful for body enhancements and just about nothing else unless I want to create monstrous chimeras to combat the grimm.

That should be everything… I just need the material now.

I summoned what I needed. Nutrients of a variety. Proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. It wasn't hard really. I just found a cattle and butchered it. Sure, being born in a cow corpse wasn't really a pleasant way to be born but there were worse… probably. I also needed some other things in a body.

I dumped the flesh on the floor in a pool of fresh water. Bacteria didn't matter. I could cure diseases anyways and what didn't kill me made me immune to it. I needed a disease resistance skill, actually. It would be more efficient than just using cure disease all the time… I'll just trickle life mana into my immune system. That should do good stuff. The scientific method can go wank to a microscope.

To the pool of now very bloody water I dumped some other stuff in. A variety of vitamin supplements, some fertilizer for nitrogen, some urine for phosphorus, and finally the main ingredient. A water balloon filled with various parts of my former body.

The balloon had been completely frozen at nearly absolute zero in my inventory. Having no space to hold heat meant that if I took away the heat there was no heat trickling in. Insta-freezer. I had to hack off various samples of cells and thaw them in the water balloon to form a catalyst.

If I just grew a body from the pool of good smells like urine and raw cow guts I would bring myself back as a cow. The most magical and badass cow in existence but a cow nonetheless… no. Just no.

The balloon of my guts and stuff would expand and consume bio matter to make a fetus, a tiny child, and after some time an eight year old. And then we carve into my flesh to give me sweet tats and whatever power runes can give me. I had a ton of them in a whole matrix to be carved on my skin. It had a few VERY fancy functions and the basic enhancements and stuff that were standard in fantasy runes.

I toss the balloon in and begin the spell. I focus all of my parallels on the spell to get it ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. The amount of preparation that went into this ritual was a little ridiculous. So much planning…

The spell kicked in and I sculpted the body to be perfect. I had my accelerate thought speed on as well as my huge INT making me think incredibly fast. My body would occasionally lean out just a little as the spell went a little bit wonky. I or my parallel would instantly be on it to set it straight.

The ritual took much longer than I thought. I stayed at the pool for hours. I had to get every detail perfect. No, the ears are deformed in the canal just a little. Wait, in the stomach. Where's the acid. Parallel two get on it. Eyes! Cornea! Three get on it! Look, the muscles are separating out again. We need them naturally dense. Nervous system now… we're missing strands in the legs. One, fix them.

By the end of the ritual I was tired and cranky. I couldn't stop here though. My heart was beating and everything was working fine but I only had a soulless shell. No will in my body.

I strapped my body down on the table I altered with some belts and directly controlled my avatar. A little meditation cleared my mind and I twirled my tattoo gun. Work time.

First was the deep runes. My entire body was a canvas. On my bones etchings were delicately scribed in spirals. Durability mostly but also density. On my fingers I etched dexterity and reflexes. My joints were the hardest. I scribed fluidity, flexibility, and durability. All these runes were a foundation for survivability and small enhancements to my range of motion and some reflexes.

Secondly was the bridge runes. Nothing complex but not anything to scoff at. These were softly inked onto my organs. Mostly they simply connected the layers but I was able to squeeze in a matrix to resist internal shock. Helpful for keeping my internal organs intact.

I also had something I was quite proud of. Auto-healing. The runes collected life mana into my organs and when injured released them in controlled streams or bursts depending on whether I needed healing fast or efficiently.

Very convenient in the midst of battle where I couldn't heal myself. The runes just couldn't hold much mana. It only worked because they only healed HP because of gamers body rather than actual wounds.

Before I finished on my skin I had to implant the sub-dermal armor. I assigned a parallel to scribe a message to Ruby from my words and tell her not to worry but that this was important. Then I returned with laser focus to my work.

The armor was runed as well as made of diamonds, which was the hardest material I had. I gave it durability. Lots of durability and a sort of complex mechanism for self healing if I supplied more diamonds to the layer to regenerate if diamonds were ever lost. I would be able to fix the layer easily enough with some work though. I added some lightweight runes as well. I considered using a magical metal but none of them were light enough to be better than diamonds. Viventium, the one that grew to fit a person's desires to a degree, might have worked but it was too heavy at the moment and would disfigure me. Not good enough.

Finally the most important and powerful part. My skin. Gods this was a great work. I had spent so many hours planning this. I even got special extremely high quality ink colored silver for this. First was the net mechanism. Aura and mana would leak out of my body due to my skills not being at max when my aura takes a hit or I cast a spell. Screw that. The net mechanism catches ambient aura when detected and absorbs it.

Next was the cloak mechanism. It was an EXTREMELY complex piece though not necessarily a space consuming one. It cloaked me in an illusion to hide the tattoos and such to look like a human or a normal faunus. Useful so I didn't have to focus on an illusion or dedicate a parallel. It was more mana efficient than my skills as well. I could make an illusion on me for the measly price of fifty MP per minute. A normal full bodied rune costs about two hundred MP per minute. More when I was weaker in my light affinity. Hiding my runes didn't even take MP. It fueled itself over the mana in the air.

Thirdly was the boost system. What I did was make a sort of temporary rage mode. It sucked up aura and some mana as well to fuel itself but it would give me a brief window of extreme physical power to overwhelm an opponent. I could only maintain it for a few seconds though.

Finally was perhaps my greatest system. The dust augmentation system. Dust would be stored in a special rune directly linked to a section of my soul space containing dust. The dust would flow, yes flow, through channels of complex runes designed to amplify and contain the dust as it traveled.

The dust would finally be allowed to expel through my palms at will with a control rune. Several types of dust could be used at the same time if I cared to do that. If I casted a spell it would be augmented by dust that I could just steal whenever I cared to. My spells would be supercharged by dust. It was my proudest accomplishment in the runic works.

As I finally finished all of this I stumbled backwards and sat down on a chair I conjured.

*Ding!* You have created an artifact of mythical rarity! Please name it:_

"True avatar." I whispered. A body for me to inhabit as more than a puppet of aura. Finally.

*Ding!* Name accepted. Establish your True avatar as your true body?

"Yes."

*Ding!* Body established. Implant Summer Rose's eyes?

"... Yes."

A light shone behind the eyes of my True avatar and faded just as quick.

*Ding!* Allow affinities to make changes to your true avatar? *Warning!* Changes are permanent! All changes can be hidden at will and offer only benevolent effects. More changes may be made as other affinities reach adequate height.

A part of me despaired at letting my creation change and not having a hand in it but on the other hand… my affinities were a part of me. They meant only to help…

"Yes." I decided.

*Ding!*Enter your true avatar to begin the changes.

I moved to my greatest work and touched it. I could feel the void of the soul and the systems of runes I had made just waiting to come to life… I fell into the void and filled it. My soul flared with elements and I felt my new hands. Then pain. Terrible pain. It was my higher soul all over again… I screamed with a new throat and laughed directly after in spite of the pain. I could feel again. And they were all my feelings. Finally.

I screamed and felt everything blur.

[|||| == ||||]

"Shouldn't you tell Yang about Auntie Raven?"

"Auntie?"

"She's family. Yang says she isn't but she only says that to stop hurting. It doesn't hurt for me to call her Auntie so I call her Auntie Raven behind Yang's back. Dad doesn't mind."

"Good. She's family still. Even if she's not here. The reason I haven't told Yang is because Raven is a person I respect. We're very similar."

"Similar how? She left family. You stayed. Auntie is a huntress. You're a villain."

"I see I haven't broken you out of that habit of thinking all huntresses are heroes."

"Oh right. When I stop thinking of all huntresses as good people Auntie is probably a really bad person…"

"In a way. Now, we're similar because we both desire one thing above all others. It's a part of us so important that it nearly defines us. Over all things we both desire to make our own choices."

"Your… I don't understand."

"Raven left because she wanted to. When others said she shouldn't she did what she thought was best anyways. I do the same. When Summer and Ozpin said to join the Ozluminati I didn't even though the only person in my life said to. I think that's strength. When everybody says that one thing is the right thing to do ignore them. Do what you think is right. Raven and I speak with our actions and absolutely agree on this."

"I think I understand."

"We're also both villains. You don't actually know this but Raven and Qrow were raised by a bandit clan. They called them family. When they met Ozpin and saw his beliefs Qrow abandoned his family. Raven stayed. Everyone said that staying with them and abandoning the bandits was the right answer she refused and went back to her family."

"Why did she leave Yang then?"

"I don't know. I assume she was an accident or that Raven left her because taking her would bring too much attention. I still respect her either way. If she were a cruel, weak, or cowardly person I would respect her far less. As it is she is strong. Certainly not kind or brave but neither is she their opposites. Her only actual weakness is Yang. Yang holds power over her mother whether she knows it or not."

"So… why don't you tell Yang?"

"Because, Ruby… should someone make the opposite of a decision you want for you, citing the greater good, would you appreciate it?"

"... No."

"Exactly. Also, I respect Raven far more than Tai or Yang. Both are weak willed and easily swayed to anybody with stronger ideals. Yang especially holds ideals that I believe to be narrow sighted. Most of all, though… It's none of my business in Tai, Yang, and Raven's dispute. I wouldn't say you do either but that's up to you. Overall, though, you don't have to do anything. Nobody will be harmed if you do nothing but feelings will certainly be hurt if you tried to help."

"... Yeah. I want to help Yang but you're right. I have no reason to."

"... would you like to meet Auntie Raven?"

"Yes. She's family. She's like Uncle Qrow. She's just away often."

"Exactly. Raven is my second best friend after you as well. I think you'll get along."

[|||| == ||||]

Somewhere along the way I lost consciousness. It was so nice to sleep again. I didn't have to stay awake now but it was so nice that I think I'll make exceptions. The messages are new though… and soreness. Dust, I did not miss being sore…

*Ding! Modifications made:

-Purity: Silver eyes already present. Enhanced existing silver eyes with your aura and purity. See boost for details.

-Wind: Wings added. Passively consume wind attuned mana to fly. Dispel when not in use.

-Light: Bioluminescence. No mana cost to produce light.

-Water: Dexterity boosted under perk "Flowing movements", which provides +20% DEX.

-Space: A fully livable artificial soul space resides in a seal on the back of your hand. Your physical body will be perfectly represented there with touch, smell, and the like. Channel space mana to your right hand to enter it and again to exit it.

-Motion: No debuffs due to speed.

-Life: Healing factor already present. Healing factor no longer requires mana to function.

-Nature: Meditation may be done without movement restrictions.

-Heat: Resistance to extremely high and extremely low temperatures granted.

Precursor silver eyes (Rank 1) - You've acquired eyes of pure silver through the willing sacrifice of a friend and enhanced through your affinity for the pure. Your eyes are the first of a new strain of silver eyes.

-Looking at Grimm may deal damage should you will it.

-+250% WIS and +150% INT

-Purity mana may or aura will be made if aura or mana are channeled through your eyes. This mana can be used by you or to further damage the grimm via eyesight.

-Your eyes may be 'flared' to multiply your purity affinity by 100x. No other affinities may be used in this time. All mana and aura is purity attuned during this time.

Well if that's not the remnant version of the rinnegan then I don't think it exists. I don't think unless I'm absurdly outclassed by a Grimm I'll be fine.

Everything on that chart is useful in some situation or another. Even Bioluminescence will be extremely helpful in dark areas. Most disappointing is motion but being immune to G-force isn't that bad. However… there's two more windows…

Bodily runic matrix (3 layered) - A master of runes has inscribed upon your body a matrix of three parts. The effects are:

-+35% VIT and +10% more STR from reinforced bones and shock resistant organs.

-+20% DEX from runes joints

-+100 HP/min from auto healing factor.

-Extremely strong sub-dermal armor. Regenerates if given gemstones.

-No excess mana or aura emitted through techniques via net system. Excess is absorbed.

-Illusionary cloak may be donned for 150 MP per minute.

-+600% STR, DEX, and senses when boost system is enabled. Consumes 6000 MP per minute.

-Dust system may be used to enhance spells with dust.

Enhanced body (homunculi) - Your body was grown to be as efficient and powerful as possible. Muscles and bones given density beyond that of normal people, a nervous system with reflexes near instantaneous, eyes of telescopic quality.

-+50% STR, VIT, and DEX

-Greatly enhanced senses

-Faunus features

-No debuffs due to age

-Reduced need for sleep. Moderately increased need for food and water due to increased muscle mass and more powerful bodily functions.

… Oh… well… Good. That HP per minute is very nice but it's backed by my life affinity and runes so it's expected to be good. The boost system is as expected. However, I could hold it for about ten minutes if I didn't use spells. It was stronger than I expected.

Everything that was on here was useful but the only things I needed to remember were the dust system, boost system, and cloak system. Everything else was more background for stats. I wonder though… What are my physical stats?

Abyss Mavros

Title: Passenger; The Gamer

Level – 188

HP – 693/693 (+101.7/min)

AP – 47,000 (+2350/min)

MP - 74,000 (+3700/min)

STR - 37 (+190%)= 107.3

VIT - 22 (+215%)= 69.3

DEX - 44 (+220%)= 140. 8

INT - 250 (+270%)= 925

WIS - 250 (+370%) = 1175

LUK - 50 (+0%)= 50

POINTS - 685

WELL THEN!... that's just… A slight bit ridiculous… that's far too weak physically. I'll assign a parallel to exercise my body for a while. Until about a hundred dexterity, seventy five vitality, and fifty strength. That should be good.

I put my body in my soul space and let my parallel start working on it. Easy enough. I hardly have to do any work as well! I just have to deal with the reduced MP and AP. No big deal.

Speaking of parallels I should assign my others to meditate on elements. I'll maximize air first. It's the one I use the most. Next I'll bring up electricity not only for the trait but because it's very useful in combat. Then would be water since, while it's not particularly useful alone it has numerous utilities. Finally would be heat. Or purity.

With a faint curiosity I looked inwards at my body in my soul space. I looked… Well I had a lot going on. My skin was as pale as Ruby's and decorated with intricate swirls and patterns. Runes, I knew, but it would look to others like an interesting full body tattoo.

My wings were rather eye catching as well. Black and feathered like a Raven's wings. Ironic. It was fashionable though. They were also convenient. They appeared only at will and as cool as they were I don't care to use them unless I was actually flying. They would make it hard to sit down. As for my body I was lean but had some dense muscles showing slightly. Kind of like a slightly more buff version of my previous body. Most importantly were my eyes.

My eyes were hypnotizing. A shining silver of Summer's or Ruby's with dark red lines too thin to be veins spiderwebbing through it. I briefly made my parallel activate my flare through my eyes and saw as the crimson lines crept out onto my skin and formed another spiderweb. My eyes glowed a pure silver and I felt my other affinities fade to the background as purity flowed through me like a river. I gasped at the feeling of… brightness running through me. Like sunshine coursing through me.

I deactivated the flare through my parallel and returned it to it's workout. I had to meet with Ruby now.

I got out of my soul space and darted back to the house. I was there in minutes and looked at the time. Five in the morning? Oh it had only taken twenty two hours - wait, thursday?! … so forty six hours… Time for Ruby to get up… how badly did the house fall apart?

[|||| == ||||]

"Auntie?"

"Hm?"

"What is strength?"

" … Freedom. What made you think of this question?"

"Abyss said that uncle Qrow was powerful but that he wasn't strong. I don't get what the difference is."

"How true. Power is easy to quantify. It's skill. Ability. Things like how capable you are whether it is at combat, magic, or even craftsmanship in some cases. Power gives you options. Strength, though, is the ability to use that power - those options - at your discretion."

"But… huh?"

"Power is being able to take every cookie on the shelf. Strength is being able to take those cookies whenever you want."

"Oh! I get it now… so… who's stronger and more powerful between you and big brother?"

"The hardest questions… Abyss is easily the stronger of us. He does whatever he pleases whenever he pleases. He has no need to depend on others whatsoever. If he wants something he takes it. If he dislikes something he destroys it or discards it. The only person he truly cares about is himself and you. Between the more powerful of us… I would say myself. I'm leagues above him in skill and in body and aura though I'm nowhere near him in terms of magic."

"I… I kind of see that."

"That's good then."

[|||| == ||||]

"You're able to handle yourself alone at least. I'm proud of you." I said happily. Ruby sent a feeling of irritation. "If it was going to be so long could you have at least left some leftovers or something? I had to eat canned ravioli! That's bachelor food! It goes against everything I stand for!"

"While I'm glad you share my belief that bachelor food is for suckers the fact that you can even do that at six years old is more than almost every kid can do. You do realize you're a prodigy right?" Ruby growled cutely menacingly.

"So you don't want to see what I was working on then?" I teased. Ruby growled softer this time and huffed before sending a weak feeling of irritation and resignment.

I decided she had had enough. I do feel kind of bad about leaving Ruby out in the cold so I pulled out my secret weapon. "I am sorry you know. Tell you what, I'll help you with school today. You can chill in my soul space and I'll do all the boring stuff." Ruby immediately brightened up considerably and sent a mollified feeling.

"Alright." "I may have baked cookies and stored them in there under a heat enchantment…" Ruby audibly gasped, breaking her breath control in her jog. She stumbled and righted herself quickly. "You're forgiven! Totally forgiven!" I chuckled at her easy manipulation.

When we finally arrived at school Ruby seemed a little nervous. "Actually since all of school is boring…" I sent the emotional equivalent of a deadpan and pulled her inside while assigning a parallel to go through her routine. I was always with her anyways so I knew it pretty well.

Ruby's body made it's way to the bathroom to change into nicer clothes and I showed Ruby to my body. "Wait here. I'll get the surprise." I got into my body and bathed the sweat off quickly while Ruby played some video games alone. I had moved the games system from the living room a while ago. A stolen TV, some furniture, a battery, and some junk food nearby made Ruby a very happy kid.

I came to an annoying realization that I had no clothes to wear. I sent an avatar to the store under invisibility, a motion spell, and fly to rob it of clothes that fit me and got a wardrobe in under ten minutes.

I donned some loose grey sweatpants and a darkish blue short sleeved shirt along with my illusion cloak on over my skin to hide the runic matrix. Then I snuck up on Ruby. I waited for her to finish her round of road raiders before hugging her from behind.

"I got a body!" I exclaimed. I also became acutely aware of how soft Ruby's skin was. I had never experienced it before. "Whoa. Your skin is really soft." I murmured.

"Wh-Abyss?!" Ruby yelled. I nodded. "I managed to grow a new body for myself. It took a ton of practice. I've been trying to make a new body for… around a year now. It feels like longer."

Ruby stared at me for a moment. "Why didn't you make your old body?" She asked confusedly. "This one is way better for a variety of reasons." I explained. "Besides the wings for flying there are a ton of other more subtle changes. Most importantly of all are my runes." I emphasized this by dropping my cloak and Ruby looked with wide eyes. She drew a hand across my cheek and hands tracing the silver runes. "Whoa… pretty." She said softly.

"There are runes inked on my bones, organs, and skin. I also have armor under my skin to stop blades from hurting me even without aura. The tattoos give me enhanced vitality, reflexes, speed, strength, and I heal really quickly. If I was on death's door I could be up and at em within seven minutes without even using mana to heal myself. I've got a few surprises too. My silver eyes are personalized for my aura as well. They work far better than normal silver eyes."

Ruby traced the runes with awe. "Can I get some?" She asked. "When you're going to a hunter school I'll give you some runes. When you're twenty two and fully grown I'll give you the full set."

Ruby hummed and nodded. Then a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Why can you use the runes if you're not fully grown?" "I wasn't born. I'm made. I made myself right." I explained. I was actually just going to re-apply the runes whenever I pleased.

"Can you take off your shirt?" Ruby asked. I didn't respond and took it off. Ruby traced the runes a little more like I was some sort of expensive art piece, which wasn't an inaccurate way of thinking about it. She stopped when her fingers found the boost system, which looked like a sort of spiral with a network of little marks in between the spirals attached to the spiral.

"What's this?" She murmured. "That's the boost system." I explained. "The wha?" she asked.

"The boost system is a network of runes I made myself. They give me immense strength, speed, and health, but they burn up my mana so fast that I can only use them for about ten minutes if I'm using no other spells."

"I see…" she muttered. "Anything else?"

"The dust system on my hands is my greatest work. It expels dust so that I can add an extra element to my spells or just amplify them. There's often a way to combine different affinities so I don't do it that often."

"So cool!" She whispered. I smiled. I didn't much like people who inked their whole body but yet I looked pretty awesome. I'd hide most of the runes in public though.

"Not their intended purpose but yes. My runic matrix is awesome."

"... Do you have a weapon for yourself?" Ruby asked with wide eyes.

"No. Come to think of it, though, I should make one… Or have you design one and I'll make it myself. Shame yo sad that you aren't good at designing weapons…"

Ruby's eyes widened. She dramatically got down on her knees and bowed. "Please teach me mighty Abyss!"

"I can't." I shrugged. Ruby looked up at me with a surprised expression. "I have no idea how to design weapons. I tried once. I can't draw a stick figure. I can work metal though. So I actually do need you to get good at designing weapons because I suck at it."

"That's… you're not… really?"

"I'm not exaggerating. I had to practice to make a stick figure…" Ruby looked at me skeptically. "no really. I'm not cut out to be an artist." Ruby shrugged acceptingly. Then her eyes widened. "If I design a kickass amazing weapon would you make it for me?"

Ah, a very difficult and weighty decision. My apologies, young grasshopper. Patience is a - "Sure. Only if it's good though. Write what runes you want it as well. Maybe an enchantment as well. And make it a gun. Remember though that you shouldn't make a really good weapon you want to use until you're older and know what it is you actually want to use. Whatever suits you best." - patience is a sin for weenies who discriminate based on age. Giving guns to a six year old is a great idea.

"Yes!" Ruby cheered. She jumped back on her feet and threw her hands in the air. I shook my head. I swear she acts so mature and then goes and does this stuff… Ruby is awesome.

[|||| == ||||]

"Auntie is nice…"

"I know. She just acts scary because it's fun for her. I don't get it. Well, she doesn't want to scare you anyways because you're trying to be stronger and you're scarily smart for your age."

"I know. I'm awesome!"

"You'd be more awesome if you could stomp down that ego. Having an ego is bad in just about every way for a personality."

"Awww…"

"Don't worry. You're young. You don't have to be perfect. Sometimes I wonder if I'm raising you wrong. Nobody else is doing it but my ideals aren't really for kids and no matter how mature you act you're six."

"I don't mind them. I like mom's more but yours are honest in a way hers aren't."

"Don't forget your mother's ideals. Even if they aren't correct you shouldn't forget that the world has good in it with the evil. You simply haven't seen much of it lately."

"It's hard to remember that there are good people in the world worth protecting."

"What did you see?"

"Huh?"

"Don't 'huh' me. That was a reminiscent look on your face. You remembered something. Spill."

"... Two guys were beating a girl behind the school today. Huntsmen in training I think. I didn't do anything… The two were belittling her about being an animal. I don't know why they were doing something like that."

"It's because the girl was the faunus."

"A what?"

"The people with animal appendages."

"What makes them different from other people? Sure they've got cute animal stuff but why mess with them?"

"Hahahahah!"

"Wh-hey! What did I do?!"

"Ah! Ah… I sometimes forget that you're such a good person. You don't even realize it do you?"

"No! I don't! Tell me!"

"Fine. Fine. They were bullying her because… she had animal ears."

"... and?"

"And that's it. Well, sometimes they do it only because they think it's the thing the cool kids do, because they enjoy hurting others, or because others are doing it so it must be a good idea. At it's core, though, people often hurt others because they're different."

"But - but why?!"

"Because faunus are called a lower species than humans. Having animal appendages immediately marks you as less important than humans."

"But that's stupid! If they're the same as us but cuter we shouldn't hurt them!"

"But people do. Because people are stupid. I don't think you realize how much of an outlier your family is. Being racist and publicly acting like it isn't really common. Being racist in private, those would be the dirty looks and the whispers, is extremely common. Being kind in private is uncommon. Being kind in public and not caring what others think? I've never met anyone but your mother who's kind enough to do that."

"What about dad and Yang?"

"Yang and her father went along with your mother's ideals. Perhaps Tai is a good person but I doubt it. Summer was a strong person with strong ideals. Even before Ozpin met her she had similar ideals to his. Tai reflects these ideals. Yang does the same. I know for a fact that your sister is a weak person."

"I know you don't like Yang but can you contain your dislike for her?"

"Only in front of her. I'm polite. Not kind. I'm no Summer."

[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]

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