Chapter 25 - Cold Encounter

"And you really decided to run away like a coward?" said the "Invincible girl", leaning back against the wall, not even looking at the stopped "cat girl" with a bow on her head.

... she didn't get an answer, but she felt that Blake had stopped and was trembling.

"Yang followed you because she was worried about you. Ruby, Weiss... all of them. And you decided to just run away without saying a word to them?" There was no accusation or anything like that in Pyrrha's voice, just a question with a note of interest.

" ... If it wasn't for me…"

"Then it could have been even worse. Or better, who knows?" Pyrrha pushed off from the wall and finally looked at the half-turned Blake, who was standing at the house and clearly intended to jump on the roof. "You know, I was on the verge. I was already ready to die... I saw my death flying towards me. Do you know what my words were before that?"

"... " there was no answer, but the redhead knew that she was being listened to attentively.

"Do you believe in destiny?". "That's what I asked the one who wanted to take my life and most likely took the life of the director. And it was at that moment, as if from a fairy tale, Anthony appeared, about whom I had never heard anything before and had never seen. Did you see what happened to... to Penny? He was able to collect it in some magical way… I realized that if you leave everything until the last moment and be afraid, you can be left without anything. I... I confessed to Jaune that I have feelings for him, just an hour ago."

"And what?" the cat girl asked.

"He started to stutter, started to look away, but all his words converge to the fact that he sees me as a friend. Perhaps he has not yet recovered from the treatment and is not thinking clearly ... but in his dream he spoke other names." Pyrrha said with a heavy sigh. "But I didn't hate him for it. And I wasn't scared, not anymore. Your team needs you now more than ever before."

"How did you notice me?" the girl turned to face the redhead, and she could see the tracks of tears on her face.

"Destiny." Pyrrha smiled mirthlessly. "I just turned around in time and noticed your back and that's it. Yang is strong and she will cope with what happened."

"I know." Blake replied softly, clenching her fists. "I... I might not be able to handle it."

"Your team will help you, and you will help them." Pyrrha smiled a little. "Constantly running is not an option, especially as far as I heard from Weiss, the one who inflicted such... such harm to Young was beaten by Shinoa."

"Yes... He was. " The corners of the faun girl's lips curved into a semblance of a smile.

"I'm not trying to change your mind. I just decided to speak out. Okay, I'm off, I need a rest too." Nikos waved her hand, leaving Blake standing alone.

***

"During the attack, I didn't have time to admire the views." Rias said as soon as we got off the bullhead. If you look further into the horizon, you can see mountains and a beautiful forest.

"We'll have time for that later." I said, following the Atlas soldier. We were now on the only whole ship, the other two were still unable to fly and were still resting on the stone pillars created by me.

The girls quieted down, or rather Hermione and Erina did it. Shinoa didn't change her expression and just followed me. Rias, on the other hand, was more or less used to meeting important people, so she wasn't too nervous. She walked along with me and considered technological innovations.

In this world, technology in some aspects surpasses the technology of our worlds, for example, the same bullheads or solid light, which is a barrier of solid light. Flying ships or walking androids or huge mechs. But the whole problem is that all this somehow works on Dust and this is both the main grace of the population of this planet and the main curse.

People here almost do not deviate from the concept of using Dust wherever possible and impossible, and they limit themselves greatly with this. Dust is the crystallized energy of the souls of millions of people who died in an instant because of the desire of the God of Darkness, and this is more than a finite resource unless of course, you come up with a way to create Dust ... and I have a couple of ideas, but that's not about it now.

Dust can be a powerful source of energy, but it also has limitations, for example, it does not work in space, and when interacting with an aura it can react, which is not very safe, since any living being in this world has an aura. The question is whether It is active or not, but this is a matter of perspective. It is for this reason that there are no satellites here yet to monitor the movement of Grimms from space, people simply cannot come up with another idea without using Dust.

"The General is expecting you." a man answered at the entrance, apparently to the main office on the ship, where the Atlas general is located.

The man himself was standing with his back to us, looking out the huge window at the flying transporters and "Manta" small warships for transporting soldiers. But as soon as we entered the office, he turned around and began to look at us with interest ... and especially a rather big stone "cocoon".

Besides him, there was another girl in the office with white hair and a stern expression on her face.

"Welcome aboard the Atlas flagship." he began quite amiably, and the man did not pretend and was glad to meet to some extent. "If it weren't for you, the losses would have been catastrophic. Don't be rude, but I couldn't find any information about you. You are definitely not students of Beacon or another academy…"

"I doubt that you will be able to find at least some information about us." I said, looking around, noticing that the expression on the girl's face trembled slightly. "We can say that we are free Hunters... very free and love to travel." I gave a free interpretation of our group.

"Hmm, okay, let's leave this topic if you don't want to talk about it. I was informed that you caught the one responsible for what happened." the general said and his tone became more severe, and the girl standing next to him twitched slightly when the earth ball moved and moved a little forward.

"Calm down Winter." the general warned her against rash actions. "Excuse her, too much has happened, and she was worried about her sister when she rushed here so on nerves. She is my subordinate and, one might say, my right hand."

"I'm not offended, I understand that times are turbulent now. I also have a sister and I can understand her." I looked at the white-haired girl, who was clearly embarrassed by the general's words but tried not to show it.

"It's Cynder Fall, or at least that's what she called herself when I fought her. She has the power of the Maiden of Autumn, so be careful with her." I said, and Winter's eyes widened in some kind of incomprehension.

"So you know about that, too?" the man asked the question, as if he expected such an outcome. Soon the "cocoon" collapsed and the exhausted "Maiden" fell to the floor.

"Winter, make sure she doesn't have a chance to escape." the general said to his subordinate.

"With pleasure" Winter nodded and called several soldiers, who took the girls and carried them somewhere, and she, after taking one last look at us, followed them.

"I really need information and if you have it, I will be very grateful." the general said after a little reflection. "And I haven't found out your names yet, I'm completely overworked."

"Anthony Luthor." I gave my name.

" Rias Gremory." a little later, the demoness replied.

"Well, if necessary... Shinoa Hiragi."

"H-Hermione Granger."

"Erina Nakiri." The blonde said calmly, while the brown-haired one was clearly worried.

"Yes... you all helped a lot, and I will not go back on my words. If you need something, please contact us."

"Actually..." Rias said, waving her mane of scarlet hair a little. "We need a place to stay for a couple of days."

"No problem." the general said without delay, however, for him it's nothing. "Anthony, can I call you by your first name? Then could you gently lower the other two ships to the ground? It will be very difficult to repair them while they are... in this position." the general looked out the window, where the ships were visible, and yes, indeed, it is difficult to repair them in this position.

"Sure, no problem." I shrugged, it really shouldn't be difficult for me. "Then I'd like to talk to you alone later, if that's possible. I have some information about... what's going on." I picked the right word.

The general quickly gave orders and we were given cabins on this ship, and very spacious and quite nice. It was a logical step on his part because Vale did not say that he had retreated after the attack, but he was actually the general of Atlas, another kingdom.

Moreover, this way we will all be closer to him, just in case. And when the girls were settled in their cabins, I went back to the general. I also wanted to call Rias, but she said she wanted to rest for now... at the same time she had a scroll in her hands and, as Cortana said, she found an interesting book…

"General. Beautiful Winter. " I nodded to two important persons of the Atlas army when I entered the office. From my words, the general almost choked on his drink and glanced at his ward. "Are you sure you can hold the Maiden of Autumn when she wakes up? She will be able to burn through the hull of the ship without any problems."

"My specialists are currently busy with this issue. " Ironwood said and looked at his ward, who clearly wanted to know more. Apparently he still hadn't told her about the Maidens.

"Sir ... " curiosity danced in the girl's eyes, even though she restrained her impulses with all her might.

"Yes, apparently there's no point hiding it from you anymore. But later. " the general said, thinking about something. "Anthony, how much do you know?"

" Well... enough to understand that Ozpin's tactics with "Wait out the Storm" failed. Even if you deplete the aura of Cynder, it will affect the Maiden's strength only for the first time until she adapts to her magical powers. So I offer my help in holding her until the interrogation.

"Good." The general stood up and pressed a couple of buttons on the holographic computer. "Do you mind helping with the ships right after that?" he stopped for a moment to ask this question.

" I don't mind." I waved my hand.

"Very well, then, Winter, escort Mr. Anthony to the detainee's cell." The general ordered her. The girl could only nod and show with her eyes that I should follow her.

"Miss Schnee... " I started to say, but the girl turned around faster than it was worth and stared at me.

"... Just Winter will be enough." she said in a cold, even somewhat emotionless tone.

"Well, it's a great name, it obviously suits you." the girl did not react to my words in any way. "I kind of met your sister, even though there was a battle at that moment, did you teach her to fight?"

" ...why these questions?" nevertheless, she decided to say at least something.

" I'm just curious, so I'm asking. " I shrugged my shoulders at such coldness of the girl. We reached the prisoner's place of detention in a couple of minutes, and indeed, specialists ran next to the camera and strengthened the barriers of solid light. "That's hardly going to help." I said.

"Here," Winter said when the door opened, and there, tied up in the center in some kind of capsule, was the girl herself.

"Okay, thanks." I stepped inside and immediately used the magic seal. A seal visible to the eye appeared under Cynder and began to slowly move upward, analyzing both her body and partially her soul. After fighting and using magic, my assimilation with Albedo grew.

Albedo (B) (98%)

"I see, that's how this power is transmitted from girl to girl." I muttered. In fact, now the soul of Cynder is enveloped by the spiritual and magical energy of an orange hue, which gradually penetrates inside and strengthens. From the outside, it might seem like a magical parasite, but it's far from it, yet this is literally raw power.

After that, the same seal began to appear on the walls of this cell... which, by the way, was also furnished in white colors. With their help, I used alchemy on four walls at once and created some mago-conductive materials, and with the help of earth magic, I simply "stretched" them and gave them the desired shape.

I also just strengthened the wall with magic, just in case, and then activated another seal, which immediately appeared on the neck of Cynder and the effect became visible. Visible "fiery" energy began to stretch from the girl to the walls, which simply dissolved into the wall and thereby strengthened it even more.

In general, now Cynder itself will be the battery for this camera, but as soon as it comes out, all this will stop working. And that's what I said to Winter, who started looking at me with a strange look.

"I see, thank you for helping Atlas." she nodded a little hesitantly and clearly wanted to ask something.

"Are you interested in something?"

"..." the girl began to peer into the features of my face as if looking for something. " No ..." not that she answered quite confidently.

We moved to the general in silence, and when we came to him, I retold everything that Winter had said, that is, that if she came out of there, she would be able to use her full strength again. He thanked me and asked me to go with Winter to the transport so that it would take us closer to those two ships.

"I need to talk to the Vale council right now." obviously not happy about this prospect, the general sat down at his desk. "And deal with the damage…"

I could understand him, or rather why he didn't like it. After all, someone posted a video online where Atlas androids shot at hunters and civilians of Vale, which is very similar to an armed attack of one kingdom on another. And let it be clear now that this is not the case, but the general will still have to talk to the council of a friendly kingdom.

I don't mind helping, thereby strengthening this shaky trust between us, because there will still be important conversations about Ozpin, Maidens, and possibly Salem. The general's support will be very useful, especially since I have plans to return to this world after the end of the two-day mission period.