Chapter 97: The End, Melanie. Or Was It?

Next day, I woke up feeling great and refreshed after ridding myself of the crazy bitch.

I take a cold bath on the river before packing my stuff and leave to continue exploring to hopefully find a ruin. However, life is always gonna throw a curveball to disrupt my plans.

"Here you are, you BASTARD! I don't care if you are a God or some big shot! I'll kill you! I'll kill you for taking away my dear Melanie from me!" Another crazy woman appeared.

"Don't worry, dear Melanie. I'll definitely kill this bastard so you can be at peace from your grief." The woman sobbed before attacking me along with the group she brought and a devastated Miltia at the back, being hugged by another woman that is comforting her with hugs.

I was confused even after the cold refreshing bath in the river. This shouting woman should be the Malachite Twins' mother from her appearance that resembles the twins although slightly chubbier.

"Wow wow, calm down people. I don't know what happened. Can't we have a civilized talk before resorting to violence?" I tried to calm the situation but it backfired almost instantly when the mother was so enraged that she was clutching her heart like she had a heart attack and had blood leaking from the side of her mouth.

"Talk! You want to talk!" The mother's voice becomes hoarse and her eyes turn bloodshot as she growls like a maddened beast. "Can your words bring my dear Melanie back to life you monster! No, you are a demon!"

"Well, of course not. But I could resurrect her with my power though." I continue to talk calmly and have a civilized solution to this problem.

"Shut up, Demon! I will not fall for your tricks and lies! You will die today no matter what!" She shouted and immediately attacked the group of women she brought. Her bodyguards perhaps?

I sighed deeply and stopped them all in place while I used Time Alter: Quad Accel.

Okay… I remember sending a few Wraiths with them. I ordered them to help bring Melanie's body to me so I can resurrect her back into her body. The body arrived not long after. She apparently had been put into a casket. I did quick work to resurrect her and put the casket within the mother's sight before undoing the Time Alter.

The mother and her bodyguards charge cut short when I suddenly blurred and Melanie appeared in front of them, no longer dead.

"There, I resurrected her." I point out as the mother looked at disbelief before quickly going to hug her daughter and confirm it's really her daughter and not the demon's trick.

"Melanie? Melanie sweetie, talk to your mother. Why? Why would you be rash and take your life? Your mother and sister were very shocked and in grief when we found you hanging yourself to death."

Instead of speaking anything, Melanie was tearing up again while her mother quickly hugged her and rubbed her back to comfort her.

I take the opportunity where everyone is distracted by Melanie to fade out into the background and leave. But I didn't realize that Melanie's teary red eyes were locked on me the moment it opened up. The crazy woman is staring at me defiantly while gritting her teeth. She takes the weapon that her mother dropped when hugging her and with a vicious smile she stabs her own throat to deny me a victory in her own twisted sense.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Just what did I do to deserve this treatment?" I pray for an answer that never came before walking up to her.

I ignore the frenzied howl from the mother and repel her along with her guards with Telekinesis before resurrecting Melanie again. After that, I erect a barrier to have a talk with Melanie.

After she opened her eyes with emotion of denial, anger and finally defiance as she took the weapon once again to do the same thing as before but it disintegrated into dust before she could stab her throat once again.

"Is your life worth that little for you to take your life not once but thrice?" She didn't answer and simply stared at me with defiance.

I guessed it wouldn't work. Lobotomizing her head to extract an answer will permanently damage her brain so I settle with hypnosis. Mind you, Hypnosis isn't my forte because it requires great control of mana which is easier actually to people with small mana pools as they tend to have more refined control of their mana. This means the recipient has a great chance to resist the Hypnosis with their willpower.

After her eyes turn dull and her body becomes limp, I start interrogating her.

"What do you truly want from me?"

"... I want you to acknowledge that I am the most beautiful women you ever see… and have you…" Melanie paused because what she said is apparently important enough to her that she instinctively resist the Hypnosis. I quickly double down on the Hypnosis and crush her resistance. "I… want you to take responsibility…" She finishes.

"Isn't it almost the same as last night?" I mutter and compare what she said yesterday and just now.

"Will you stop killing yourself?" I ask another question.

"No… I will keep killing myself to prove him my conviction…" She replied again and her consciousness seemed to jolt up and resist at the part when she mentioned me.

"Conviction? What conviction?" I asked with a confused expression.

"Conviction of m-my l-love to h-him…" Melanie's dull expression becomes frown as the Hypnosis is losing its control by the resistance that is getting stronger. I have to use my spiritual power to weaken her willpower to increase the effectiveness of Hypnosis.

"Love? How the hell can you fall in love, damnit. We just met a few times and that's it. How did that spiral into this? Even taking your own life…" I am too is in denial after hearing this. I just want my vacation. Is that impossible to ask?

(Gods above that hear your prayer can only blame yourself for being a dense ass mf. Reap what you sow bozo.)

"Yeah… Nope. Not dealing with this shit." I gave up and chose to throw it all away in one go to save me the headache. "It's better for both of us if we never met." I said and amplified the Hypnosis power and suppressing her willpower before trying to remove all her memories of me.

Though, I didn't account for one thing. Aura, the power native to this world where people can hone their soul and use it in battle. This means stronger willpower than usual.

Melanie, perhaps in sheer desperation after hearing what I am attempting. She somehow awakened her Aura which is the pale azure layer that appeared on her body. Then she broke free from the Hypnosis rather easily because I was trying to be gentle to not mess up her mind.

"Despicable… to think you wouldn't even hesitate to wipe away my cherished memories." She was shaking and hugging herself into a ball.

"Because you are a bother to me. I don't need that feeling of yours. You never asked if I wanted them. You selfishly impose your feelings on me, forcing me to reciprocate or else you threaten my life with all these nonsensical problems." My tolerance reached the boiling point as I no longer have the mood to deal with this nonsense as I wear an expressionless face. "That's why, it's better for your safety and my sanity if you never know me, never meet me and never have feelings for me."

Melanie holds the short sword that belongs to her mother and prepares herself against me. Thinking with her Aura, she could make a difference. I easily proved her to be wrong as my hand extended out in a choking gesture and my psychic force responded and formed a choke on her neck as I pinned her back into her casket.

"Sleep." I whisper in a soft and comforting tone while her face shows immense dread and unwillingness while she struggles like she is on her last breath but all of them vanish as her body turns limp, relaxed and she falls into a deep sleep with a tear streaking down the side of her eyes.

"Sleep… By the time you wake up. Everything will disappear and you will treat it as nothing more than a dream." I plant mental suggestions and seal away the memories, making her think it's just a bad dream.

As for why I didn't just purge the memories? Well, the same reason why people want to ban Lobotomy and prefer medication instead.

"Now… Miltia, the mother, the bodyguards and Junior. 8 more to go." I sighed and counted the number of people I have to adjust their memories.

———

After dealing with the clean up. It's already late in the afternoon and I returned to Forever Fall forest. I had tied the loose end but that also meant almost the majority of my day was spent elsewhere and I cannot explore the forest much for today.

But, I still make use of the rest of my time to explore ruins as I had planned. However, there was simply too much Grimm kept swarming up on me. Perhaps the incident this morning still has my emotions in a mess as the Grimm was attracted by my negative emotions.

"Well, a good opportunity to blow some steam off I guess…" I heaved the Traced Greatsword of Artorias as the one Tanya housed is in my main body. I looked at the sea of black and white surrounding me and grinned widely.

"Come at me, you soulless freaks! I'll bury you all, six feet under." I growl at them and charge in with reckless abandon, charging into the rank of the approaching sea of monsters with only one sword in hand and nothing else but a spiritual energy mimicking Aura to shield my flesh.

It seems that I have to delay the exploration for another day.

———

Meanwhile, in Vale city. The Huntsmen and the Council of Vale were alerted by sudden change in behavior of the Forever Fall forest's Grimm.

The Grimm of the entire forest all ran towards a particular spot like sharks that smelled blood and formed Grimm Tide.

"Headmaster Ozpin, please send aid. The population is in chaos and we fear t-"

"I understand. The negative emotions of the population…" Ozpin sighed through the communication device.

His day has been anything but good since this morning. Powerful burst of mana felt from the Forever Fall forest and by the time his agent arrived to investigate, there was no one there or any clue that could shed some light in the dark.

Then a few minutes prior to the formation of Grimm Tide, a burst of horrifying energy caught him off guard. Such pure malicious and negative energy burst out in the same forest like a primordial evil suddenly awakened on Remnants. These were something he never sensed or experienced before in his entire incarnations.

He has assumed this might be done by Salem, his arch nemesis. But, this presence feels different. Salem and her cadres feel like a force of nature, all destroying and all consuming for a vengeance. But this, it feels primal, familiar yet revolting. As if the rot that has been cut off from the body.

"...pin! Ozpin!" Glynda smacked the desk to bring Ozpin out of his thoughts.

"Finally." Glynda sighed and looked at Ozpin. "Is this wise to concentrate all our staff, Huntsmen and senior students to Forever Fall forest? For all we knew, it could be a distraction or a trap."

"It could." Ozpin didn't deny it.

"Then-" Glynda was about to say something but she was cut off by Ozpin.

"But, we have no other choice. We have potentially an entire forest worth of Grimm that could attack the city at any moment. The people are in panic and could make it even more worse if we keep dawdling. " Ozpin argued as currently, the phenomena in the forest is overpowering the negative emotions generated by the population of the city and made the Grimm focus on the forest rather than the city.

Ozpin didn't know what was in disguise of this blessing. An even greater disaster? Only time could tell.

"But… the students!" Glynda insisted.

"This is a great opportunity to prove their worth and get hands-on experience. This is their final year and you are the one saying we cannot keep pampering them. So, why are you complaining right now?" Ozpin shrugs and takes a sip from his mug, leaving Glynda no space to maneuver and forced to give up.

"If that is your decision. Then allow me to join the defense too." She made her decision.

"Go ahead. I did say all staff, Huntsmen and senior students are involved. That includes you too, 'Professor' Glynda Goodwitch." Ozpin points out as he already predicted Glynda would ask to join as she worried about her students.

After Glynda left, Ozpin sat alone in his office. Thinking how he should approach this matter as clearly this phenomena is related to the burst of mana from this morning.

Also, unknowingly Ray created a big enough distraction for Cinder and her cronies to enter deeper into Beacon Academy and proceed with their agenda while disguising as students from another academy that are visiting for Vytal Festival.

—————

(🤣🤣 Sorry with the misunderstanding title.)