Confronting White

" I'm heading to the restrooms real quick; you ladies, go ahead and get comfortable."

" Understood, my lord."

" We will be waiting, Master Silva."

I got up as everyone was getting ready to sleep in the ballroom, and Luna and Argint were going to sleep with me as usual. Even with the lights turned off, I can see everything just fine, thanks to my faunus night vision, and once I reached the restrooms, I opened a small portal to the Astolfo look-a-like as they should be asleep or at least tired enough that I can use Soul Archive on them without them or anyone noticing. After touching them, I used my Semblance on them, but for the first time, I encountered resistance.

Something was barring me from copying their memories, but I started using Magic along with Soul Archive to power through and saw some things that made my blood boil. This Trap B*stard is a reincarnator with a system, and what he wanted to do to some of the people I care about made me want to murder him regardless of the consequences. Still, I stopped myself as I had the perfect time and place to deal with him, tomorrow's initiation. Before anything else, I need to make some preparations because, despite his apparent weakness, I am still dealing with a System User from a ROB, so having contingency plans is a must.

I went to grab the Lamp of Knowledge to abuse the time-stop feature to write down some things in case I somehow died. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I will deal with the Trap B*stard one way or another. Although I won't deny I am partly excited to face a possible challenge regardless. I haven't had a hard fight in forever.

***

All the first-year students were at the Beacon Cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest for initiation. Ozpin and Glynda started to explain what to do for the initiation.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

The old wizard sipped his cocoa as the strict teacher took over.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Silva already knew about how initiation worked and told Argint and Luna not to look for him specifically, as he was going to deal with the grinning Astolfo before anything else. Ozpin smiled as he explained.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

No one had any questions as they got ready, which made the old wizard smile because his favorite part of the day was about to start.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

One by one, everyone got launched into the air, with Silva being the last one to be launched before going Ozpin spoke to him.

" Mister Branwen."

" Mister Branwen makes me sound old, so refer to my Uncle Qrow as that and just call me Silva, Headmaster."

The old wizard chuckled at the jab at Qrow and said.

" Very well, Silva. Before we start, I want to ask you something."

" Shoot."

" What is your goal in attending Beacon?"

Silva answered somewhat honestly with a shrug.

" To make bonds and friendships that will last a lifetime, plus get my Huntsman License."

Ozpin liked what he heard and thanked the snow leopard faunus for his honesty, as he could hear the sincerity in the answer.

" Thank you, Silva, and best of luck."

Silva was then launched into the air and immediately opened a Portal once enough distance was made to be unnoticed.

***

Astolfo was giddy about getting his dream team, namely Pyrrha since Jaune was nowhere to be seen, Weiss and Ruby. His minimap already had them marked, and he was making his way to the polite spartan but was surprised to see the mark for Silva appear atop him and looked up to see the snow leopard falling towards him. Before the system user could react, he felt himself suddenly falling and saw pure darkness before winding up in the sky because of the black portal opened beneath him, and Silva soon followed.

[ Blood Lust detected.]

[ Kill Intent detected.]

[ Quest generated.]

[ SURVIVE!!!

Silva Branwen has decided to kill you for some reason; you are too weak to beat him, so escaping with your life is your only option.

Reward: +100 levels, S-Rank weapon ticket, Skill [ Luck], 100000 Shop Points]

Astolfo shrieked with bewilderment.

" WHAT THE F*CK!?"

The system user panicked, but his [ Conditional Emotional Suppression] skill kicked in to stop his panic, and he started to formulate a plan. He looked down to see a vast savannah below him and focused his Aura on his legs. Before Astolfo could land, Silva immediately attacked with Dark Wrath, which ate up a large chunk of the system user's Aura and burned the land below. The snow leopard man landed with wind magic softening his landing. Unfortunately, that was not enough to kill the system user.

" Was that a F*cking Cero Oscuras!? What are you, an Arrancar?! Was that your wish from ROB?!"

Astolfo coughed as he dusted himself off, but Silva was not wearing any kid gloves and immediately used Flash Step to cross the distance and slash at the system user with Snærkló. Astolfo barely dodged, thanks to his [ Auto Evasion] skill, and immediately commanded his system.

" System, [ Combat Analysis] skill, now!"

[ Processing...]

The snow leopard man fired off another dark blast of energy at the system user and evaded while taking out their Flame Spear from their inventory. Astolfo tried to talk to Silva to buy time for their skill to kick in.

" Hey, can we talk about this? I mean, your a reincarnator; I'm a reincarnator! Surely we can reach an agreement like civilized people!"

The snow leopard faunus launched a black Aura shuriken from his weapon at the system user, as there was nothing to discuss. Astolfo evaded the attack again and was immediately met with a direct clash with Silva. Snærkló's sonic vibration rang out against the Flame Spear of the pinkette, and the system user demanded.

" System, how much longer?!"

[ Combat Analysis on Silva Branwen at 33%.]

Silva overpowered Astolfo by constantly pushing the system user back as they clashed. If not for [ Auto Evasion], he would have been long dead, and the pinkette knew that since his [ Killing Intent Detection] and [ Blood Lust Detection] skills were leveling up like crazy. The snow leopard was bound and determined to kill them no matter what. Astolfo managed to avoid another swing from Silva's weapon but was met with an explosion of dark energy that could not be evaded due to the wide blast radius. The snow leopard quickly realized that AOE attacks were the only way to deal any damage against the system user.

Snærkló now had a dark aura swirling around it as a massive Aura blade formed, and that made Astolfo greedy for Silva's weapon and demand.

" System, how much longer?!"

[ Combat Analysis for Silva Branwen at 70%.]

From a distance, a massive pillar of dark energy reached for the sky and erupted with unbound fury. Silva's attacks scorched more and more of the savannah and drove away all the animals in the surrounding area. The system user's Aura broke at last, and the snow leopard faunus got ready to deal the final blow with another explosion, but the system alerted its user at last.

[ Combat Analysis complete, probability of defeating Silva Branwen under current circumstances, 0.094℅.]

" What am I supposed to do then, you useless system?!"

Astolfo was scared sh*tless at dying again or rather at being murdered by Silva, and the System replied.

[ Recommended course of action. Activate the System's Defense Protocols to preserve the host's life.]

" Do it!"

The system user's eyes went blank, and a white halo formed his head. An electronic voice came out of the system user.

[ Activating Level 3 Defense Protocols to ensure Host's life.]

Silva cursed after clicking his tongue.

" I knew it wouldn't be easy."

He immediately unleashed another explosion from his Semblance Dark Wrath, and the system user, or rather the system itself, responded.

[ Temporary skill, [ Magic Barrier] acquired.]

The snow leopard faunus frowned as he saw the transparent hexagonal barrier protecting the haloed pinkette. He decided to stop holding back as he knew he could no longer afford to. The sky started to darken with clouds as Silva unleashed his magic, and he opened a portal within the barrier behind the System to fire a piercing shot of dark energy. It pierced through the body of the system user, but the System responded emotionlessly."

[ Temporary skill, [ Regenerate ] acquired.]

The wound started to close, much to the snow leopard man's annoyance, and he got ready for a long fight ahead of him. The System looked toward Silva and said.

[ Analysing... Temporary skill, [ Projection] acquired. Designating appropriate counter weapon against the enemy. Done. Creating Mountain Cleaving Sword.]

The possessed system user conjured up a massive sword as tall as a mountain and swung it at the snow leopard man. He evaded easily with Flash Step and opened another portal with Door To Darkness to strike the System with his weapon to bisect it. Unfortunately, even with the body being cut in half, the possessed system user continued fighting.

[ Error... Reassessing the threat level of the enemy. Gaining permission for level 2 Defense Protocols... Acquired. Sacrificing Host's skills, extra stats, and level for Temporary skill, [ High Regeneration], [ Dimensional Distruptance], and [ War God Arts].]

The System restored its host's body, and Silva found he could no longer keep up his portal as it broke down for some reason. The possessed system user started to conjure various Aura-formed weapons and attack the snow leopard from every direction. Silva was having a hard time defending, even while using Magic to speed up his thought process and enhance his reflexes. Thankfully the projected weapons were on the fragile side so he continuously broke them, and the System remade them.

The snow leopard man was biding his time until the right moment, and the first sound of thunder was his signal. Silva blasted away all the floating weapons with Dark Wrath and fired a continuous beam at the possessed system user. The System had no reaction as the barrier was more than enough to stop the attack, but that was just a distraction as a massive ball of lightning formed above it and finally rained down. The lightning orb broke the barrier and chared the body of the possessed system user, but they unfortunately recovered, and the System said.

[ Reassessing... Gaining permission for level 1 Defense Protocols... Granted... Sacrificing partial system functions for... [ High Physical Resistance], [ High Magical Resistance], [ Perfect Projection], [ Mana Manipulation], [ Mana Sense], [ Auto Counter].]

Soon not only weapons constructed of Magic formed but also fireballs, ice arrows, lightning bolts, wind blades, and stone spears started to rain down on Silva. The snow leopard projected his Aura outwardly so as not to get knocked around by the barrage of attacks and decided to pull out his trump card. Over the years, he trained, created, and healed, but he never stopped increasing his Magic and got the idea to compress his Magic as well as he does with his Aura for Magical energy.

At first it just made Silva's Magic denser until after hundreds of compression, something unexpected formed, a Spark of Divinity. After getting his Spark of Divinity, Silva finally knew where the increase of Aura came from, Remnant itself. The world of Remnant was already dying a slow death that would continue for tens of thousands until it was too late. Silva's Cultivation accelerated the process by a few thousand years, and he decided to stop before he went too far. The snow leopard faunus retained the Divine Spark and was surprised not to receive a visit from the Brother Gods despite the years that went by.

Silva had a hard time getting a grasp of how to manipulate his Divine Spark, even with the time-stop of the Lamp giving him ample time to practice. It nearly drove him mad to feel his Divine Spark and yet not be able to use it as he had a way to be free of his biggest concern, the Brothers themselves, as they were fickled and untrustworthy. To the snow leopard man, they were a pair of children with far too much power and, like Salem, wanted to be free of their intervention, especially now that he had something that could be used against them.

Silva devoted a vast amount of time trying to understand his Spark of Divinity, and after who knows how long within the time-stopped world, he at least got enough of a feel of it to use it offensively and defensively. The snow leopard faunus infuses divinity within his dark energy blast and destroys his surroundings, but it leaves him drained, and he could only use it a few more times at most. The System still kept its host alive and said.

[ Maximum threat level detected, lower Divinity detected, switching to level 0 Defense Protocols sacrificing the majority of System function. Error, Host rebelling against the sacrifice of Multiverse Travel function. Error, not enough power to eliminate lower Divine entity. Compromise, sending away lower Divine entity to another universe. Identifying a high-danger world with lowest probability of survival for a lower Divine entity with minimum chance of strengthening. World found, making preparations to send enemy away.]

Silva found himself restrained by a Magic circle below him and used another divinity-infused attack to break free. Feeling more drained than before, the snow leopard faunus used the last of his Aura, Magic, and Divinity for one previous attack to end the System and its user. Before the attack could be launched, the possessed system user managed to send Silva away, and the System said.

[ Neutralized enemy. System entering hibernation, only bare minimum functions are available for the host. I wish you luck on your journey.]

The white halo disappeared around Astolfo, and he regained control over his body as he collapsed and said with tiredness apparent.

" FFFFFUUUUUCCCCC*KKKK-ing H*ll, what in the f*ck did I do to deserve some secret end-game boss in a tutorial world?!"

He drew up his status and cursed at being back at level one again with no skills or items. The system user complained but felt relief at not having to deal with that monster, Silva, again.

***

High above the battlefield where Silva and Astolfo clashed, the Foreigner had Lucifer, Lilith, and Electra within as they watched the entire fight. The two more advanced AI personalities felt muted emotions of worry and anger.

" Is Dad gone?"

" Maybe, but Father isn't dead; I know it!"

[Based on observations, the possibility of the Creator's survival is-.]

Lilith and Lucifer said with perfect unity.

" Shut it, Electra!"

The male digital idol then said in a somewhat grim voice.

" Start Contingency Plan A."

[ Understood.]

***

Astolfo ranted at having to start all over because of Silva and being stuck in the middle of nowhere but was glad nonetheless at still being alive. For now, he needed to gain levels quickly if he wanted to survive. The system user looked around the landscape and broke out in cold sweat as he muttered to himself, recalling that his system told him that there was no sign of any system on the snow leopard man's soul.

" Did that guy seriously not have a system?!"

Astolfo was once more glad that Silva was out of his hair and wanted to find some EXP soon. The next thing he knew, he saw a burning white light engulf him and he found himself in a familiar void with a familiar voice.

" Hey, dumb in pink, you died, again."

The system user recognized the ROB as the same one that gave him his system, and the ROB laughed his butt off. Astolfo screeched.

" What do you mean I died again!"

" Exactly that, my dear dumb pinkette; you got killed by a massive Dust bomb that was dropped on you by that other reincarnator's helpers."

The system user was stunned for a few minutes and then whined.

" That's not fair! I demand a do-over!"

" Sorry, dumb-dumb, but that's it for you!"

Before Astolfo could say anything else, ROB sent him away and said.

" Now, who do I pick next for my entertainment?"