Snow White (pun not intended, I'm not Yang)

I worked on the Mobile Suit Gundam Code Fairy side story comic as I did not have much to do this morning. The twins were asleep, Emerald was out with Argint shopping for school supplies, Luna was going over her daily practices, and Neopolitan was still hanging out at Argus with Pyrrha. I had the day to myself for the most part, and as I drew up the fighting scenes of the side story, I recalled my earlier works. I powered through, finishing the Remnant version of Harry Potter so I could focus more of my time on Gundam.

I also finished up Heaven Defying Demon Empress with the main character becoming a goddess of creation and destruction at the end of it all. I also finished up the initial manga for Gundam, and I am drawing up all the side stories that took place during the One-Year War before moving on to Zeta Gundam. I enjoyed the work and thought about other works from Earth I should bring to Remnant to expand its entertainment variety and hopefully inspire others to write and draw more.

I got a fair amount of offers to expand Gundam and Heaven Defying Demon Empress into anime and such. The Harry Potter movies have been a hit so far, and the fourth movie is underway, which will be divided into two parts since the book is significantly bigger than the earlier adventures of the boy who lived. Overall I am flush with cash and don't have to do anything unless I want to, but I have always needed something, for lack of a better phrase, not fun to do to allow me to enjoy my hobbies more.

After finishing drawing up what I wanted for the next volume of the Gundam side story, I stretched and decided to do my weekly visit to Salem to see how she was doing. I opened a portal to her and found her relaxing in her study, pouring over some old books she had in her collection. I silently walked over to the witch and greeted her.

" Hello, Salem."

" Only you would have the nerve to try and surprise me from behind, Silva."

Salem dryly said as she did not look back at me from reading her tome. Seeing the apparent age of the book, I asked curiously.

" What are you reading, Salem?"

" One of my old journals from when I was still trying to gather the Relics."

" Any particular reason why?"

I asked, as I could not think of a reason why she would be doing this, and the witch told me.

" I have some suspicions that my dip into the Waters of Destruction might have influenced my mind into following this course of action before meeting you."

I had my own suspicions about this possibility before I went to confront Salem, and it was part of the reason why I wanted to try and reason with her first. I decided to leave her be since she was busy with her personal project and not distract her.

" I will not bother if you are busy, Salem. Have a nice day."

" Wait."

The witch authoritatively stopped me before I left, and I was curious to see what she wanted. Salem turned to face me and gestured for me to have a seat across from her as she went to sit down in a chair. As I took my seat, I asked.

" What do you want to talk about, Salem?"

The witch kept silent as she took out a small box and opened it to reveal a small bottle filled with a glowing liquid. I scrutinized the bottle and asked.

" What is it?"

" A bottle filled with the Waters of Life from the God of Light's old domain before Ozma sealed it away."

" Why show me this?"

I could not understand why Salem would show me this now; I knew about it because I had used Soul Archive on her before, but I was not going to give the witch even a hint of that unless I came to trust her completely. Salem smiled as she told me.

" I have an offer for you, Silva. I want you by my side beyond your paltry lifespan of several decades."

While I doubt the little bottle of water could give me the same level of immortality as the witch before me, it could increase my lifespan by as much as a millennium or, at minimum, centuries. Living a lot longer than most did appeal to me slightly, but ultimately I did not want to outlive the people I cared about by a wide margin, especially if I had kids in the future. I asked Salem a somewhat cruel question to give my answer.

" How did it feel to bury your daughters?"

The witch slightly narrowed her eyes but did not lash out at my question. She put away the box and said coldly.

" I suppose even you would understand the curse of outliving others despite your brief existence. My offer still stands if you change your mind."

" I apologize for my cruel question, but I needed to make my stance as clear as possible."

I apologized sincerely, as I did feel bad for bringing that up, and Salem got up from her chair. As she turned her back to me and left, Salem said.

" You may leave."

I knew I had made her angry, and I better make an effort to appease her despite whatever reason she made that offer. I have been holding off on using Soul Archive on Salem after I saw that she truly gave up on gathering the Relics to bring about judgment day. I want to give her at least some privacy; I give to all the people I at least care about a little bit.

***

Weiss was nervous as she had Myrtenaster as she prepared herself for whatever test her mother had set up for her. The snow princess was also a little peeved at her mother's insistence on attending Atlas over Beacon because it was nearer to home. While it warmed her heart, and she did like spending time with her mother nowadays, whether sparring or just general stuff like shopping, she wanted to see more of the world outside of Atlas. She wanted to be like her grandfather, a Huntsman or, in her case, a Huntress, to prove herself worthy of her family's legacy and make it rise as her grandfather did.

Weiss walked into the training hall and saw her mother up on the balcony overlooking her along with Winter and Whitley. Willow called out to her daughter and asked with a voice tinged with concern.

" Are you sure you wish to go through with this, Weiss?"

" Yes, mother."

The snow princess replied curtly as she readied her weapon, and the Schnee matriarch sighed with a helpless look and took out a tablet to bring out Weiss's opponent. The central platform opens up and reveals a giant suit of armor reminiscent of her grandfather's chained-up. Willow then told Weiss about her opponent.

" Before you is an Arma Gigas, a suit of armor possessed by a Geist or, in this case, multiple Geist, which further strengthens it. The R&D department of the company came up with this as an alternative to protecting cargo freighters and trains without relying on hiring Huntsmen or risking the lives of soldiers. It's still in the experimental phases, as there is no reliable way to control it yet."

Willow gripped her weapon of choice, a simple bastard sword without any extra features, and asked Weiss once more.

" Are you sure, Weiss?"

The snow princess replied silently by entering her combat stance, and the Schnee matriarch let loose the chain binding the lab-created Grimm. It roars out as it takes the great sword that was near it and swings at Weiss. The snow princess leaps back and slams her rapier onto the ground to cover it with a sheet of ice under the Arma Gigas. The giant armor slipped and fell; Weiss then used her Glyphs to propel herself forward and strikes the downed Grimm. The Arma Gigas slammed its metal fist down and broke the icy floor before getting back up.

The Grimm swung its massive sword in a wide arc to try and reach the snow princess, but she used her Glyphs to move out of the way. Weiss sent a wave of fire forward and created steam from the broken icy floor to blind the Arma Gigas. The Grimm wildly swung its sword around, and Weiss took the next several moments to conjure a circle of Glyphs around the steam, and they sparked up before raining down lightning from above to shock the living armor. It roared out in pain and then struck the floor with such force that the steam scattered.

The Arma Gigas charged at Weiss with reckless abandon, and as the Grimm raised its massive weapon to strike down the Snow Princess, she raised her rapier to conjure a cyan shield that deflected the strike. Before the living armor could regain its balance, Weiss fired a wind slash at it to knock it back further, then rapidly propelled herself to land multiple strikes on the disoriented giant. The Arma Gigas swung wildly and managed to send the snow princess flying with a lucky hit.

The Grimm charged at the downed Weiss and she just managed to get out of the way, thanks to her Glyphs. The snow princess quickly regained her balance, but the living armor surprised her by throwing its sword at her, which landed another massive hit. The Arma Gigas did not stop there as it picked up the broken floor to throw at Weiss, which made her raise a Glyph to block the attack. The Grimm charged at the snow princess and tried to kick her, but she evaded and gained some distance away.

The living armor pursued her like a mad dog and picked up its sword along the way, and swung it at Weiss. The snow princess conjured a cyan barrier to deflect the attack but unlike last time, the Arma Gigas regained its balance far more quickly and punched with its left fist while the barrier was still up. The Grimm then immediately slashed with its sword while it's fist was against the shield and broke through to land a hit on Weiss, which gave her a bleeding cut over her left eye as she was knocked back.

Willow wanted to jump in and end the fight, but Winter stopped her and said.

" Have faith, mother. Weiss can still do this."

The Schnee matriarch decided to trust her eldest's words but kept a tight grip on her bastard sword. Weiss got up and wiped the blood out of her eye, and launched herself at the Arma Gigas. She was in between its feet and used Ice Dust to freeze them to the ground, then struck the back of its knees to make it topple over. The snow princess then used her Glyphs to restrain the Grimm at its neck as she went airborne, then struck the helmet with all the force she could muster, and the Arma Gigas fell to its future master.

Weiss fell to her knees with her weapon supporting her as she drew in her breath greedily, and Willow had Klein attend to the snow princess's wound. Weiss felt a sense of gratification in passing her mother's test and was looking forward to attending Beacon.