To Become More
The little girl had long golden hair which went along with her shining yellow eyes. She was holding a small doll in her hands that looked like a miniature Pyrrha. Something you would expect to see sold at a stall.
The little girl had originally come down the hall running, but the moment she saw Shen and the others she stopped. A look of unfamiliarity flashed across her face as she looked at Pyrrha.
"Oh and who-" Before Shen could finish speaking Pyrrha quickly moved in front of him. The look on her face was dreadful, like all of the blood had been drained entirely.
"She's no one, I'll deal with it." Yet despite that Shen heard utter steeliness in her voice. Off to the side, Raven's face had also changed. Although it wasn't as obvious as Pyrrha's she clearly knew about this child and felt similarly to Pyrrha at this moment.
Neo who had been silently standing behind Shen frowned seeing Pyrrha blocking Shen, but before she could act Shen held out hsi hand.
"L1 who is that girl?" Without even speaking to Pyrrha he turned to L1 who was beside him. Without hesitation, L1 answered.
"After joining in with the assault on Petra City, Pyrrha Nikos brought home a little girl. We've confirmed her identity to be the daughter of the General of the city's military. He was killed, however, the daughter survived." Shen raised a brow as he turned his head to look back at Pyrrha and the little girl standing a few meters behind her.
'I see, so the invincible girl ended up taking in a refugee when I ordered her to assist in destroying that city. No doubt it's also what helps her sleep well at night.' At that moment Shen's lips rose, within less than a second he disappeared from Pyrrha's line of sight appearing directly behind her bent down on one knee.
'Dammit!' Pyrrha turned around prepared to act, but before she could two people grabbed her shoulder. It was Sienna and Raven both of them had complicated expressions. But clearly, they were telling Pyrrha not to act, if she really took up arms against Shen this situation would go from bad to worse.
Pyrrha knew that as she froze and grit her teeth, staring at Shen. He was kneeling down in front of the little girl with a kind smile.
"And what's your name?" Shen spoke in a light tone, it wasn't sarcastic or malicious like normal, nor was it scheming. He was acting gentle, which caused the shock the little girl felt to slowly die down.
"Me- Merry..." She answered nervously as Shen tilted his head to the side.
"That's a nice name, my name Shen. I'm a friend of Pyrrha's." As Shen said that he stood up and looked back at the others.
"I didn't know we had such an adorable guest, one of you should have told me." As he said that he stepped aside gesturing towards Pyrrha. She didn't hesitate to quickly run up and grab Merry before backing away from Shen. In the middle of all of this Merry couldn't tell what exactly was happening.
"Oh, so defensive, I'm hurt. Do I really seem like the type of person to hurt a child?" Pyrrha's eyes widened upon hearing that as if disbelief had struck her.
'Is he serious? Does he have any idea how many people he's killed? Children slaughtered as a result of…' Even though made her hold on Merry tighten. Seeing that Shen shrugged.
"I see, let's go you three, I believe everyone here deserves a chance to relax." Shen assumed a calm disposition as he walked away. Neo glanced at Pyrrha, in almost a look of warning before following with L1 and L2 matching their his pace. Soo only Sienna, Raven, Pyrrha, and most importantly Merry were left in the hall.
"Pyrrha… Are you ok?" Raven spoke with a hint of worry causing Pyrrha to slowly snap from her daze.
"Yes, I'm fine… I'm just tired. Come on Merry let's get you back to your room." Without another word, Pyrrha turned to leave as well.
"Bye, Aunty Raven." As they left Merry waved to Raven with a slight smile. Raven couldn't help but wave back. Merry reminded her of Yang, she said nothing to Yang when they were in Atlas. Or more like she couldn't bring herself to, what could she say? Other than blood, the two of them were practically strangers.
She had no right or intention to try and act like a mother after all these years.
"Do you really think he'll leave Merry and Pyrrha be?" Raven spoke without turning to look at Sienna who was next to her.
"I'm not sure. This is the first time I've seen him act so…" She didn't have a word for it. Passive? Gentle? No, although he seemed that way she could also tell Shen was acting. He was acting well, but acting all the same.
'He always flashes that damn smile of his when he's scheming something. But what could he possibly want with Merry?'
…
"Neo hand the Relic of Destruction to L1, I want it locked away somewhere secure. L2 I want the Relic of Knowledge and Choice to be transferred over from Vale, to here. Blake and the others should be contacting Sienna with an update on the Relic of Creation soon." Both L1 and L2 nodded their heads as they quickly got to work.
With those two branching away only Shen and Neo were left. As the two of them walked Neo spoke to him.
"Are you planning on doing something to that girl? I've never seen you act so friendly before." Shen didn't stop walking as he answered.
"Nothing yet… But I do have a future experiment in mind. Something that will be much more interesting than anything I've done before. But for now, it can wait, I have more important things to deal with." As fun as the idea was he had no time to play around with Pyrrha or her emotional issues at the moment.
As the two large double doors opened, they reached the room containing Shen's throne. Neo watched as Shen held out his hand and a flash of light shined from his palm. Appearing seemingly out of his own body, a sword appeared. It was shaped strangely and was both sharp yet rugged.
Its entire blade and main body shined with the glimmer of gold, yet the strange electricity not generated from Shen seemed to course through it.
[Oh, summoning me again so soon? Did you miss my company? I didn't know you were one to get so attached, though I guess that would explain why so many of the people under your command are girls. Who would have thought you have such desires deep down, even towards a weapon, how le-]
"Please stop talking." Shen nearly let out a groan, as Neo's eyes stared at the weapon in Shen's hand.
"It can speak?" Shen paused as he turned to look at Neo.
"You can hear its voice?" Neo nodded as she continued to stare at the weapon in his hand. He was speaking to Neo because he had formed a special almost telepathic bond to her. At the same time, this weapon spoke through his mind as well. Perhaps the two managed to link somehow like radio interference? It was a possible theory though Shen wasn't sure.
[Oh? Isn't this that girl from your memories? Hehe, you know out of everyone you-] Before it could utter another word Shen slammed his hand against the bade, causing it to vibrate.
[Ow! Ok, jeez I'll be quiet.]
"What is that thing?" Neo couldn't help but ask the question, out of everything Shen has done and shown her this was perhaps the strangest.
"Hm… Well, I suppose I can tell you." There are quite a few weapons he had access to buying, but what he needed was one capable of killing a god. So what better weapon then one from one of the most powerful and popular fictional universes that existed? It was even named properly, The Godkiller.
Coming straight from the DC Universe, forged by Olympian Gods to kill others, gods. Ability wise it was perfect, truly a weapon deserving of its name. However, there was one thing Shen hadn't foreseen.
The Godkiller had its own consciousness, it was buried deep and was very subtle, but it existed all the same. At the same time, Shen had gotten quite sensitive to feeling these kinds of things out. After all manipulating minds were something he did best. So when sensed something within The Godkiller he couldn't help but reach out to it utilizing his Life Fibers.
He and Neo were an example of bridging two minds together, and now the same went for him and The Godkiller.
'Sadly it was not what I expected...'
By the time he realized where he had gone wrong, it was too late. It had not only gained access to a portion of his mind and memories but it began adapting its own personality and even gaining the ability to speak back to him. All in all, it was basically a telepathic hive mind situation, except it was currently between Shen, Neo, and the blade itself.
After a few minutes of explaining the situation, Neo's expression changed a bit. A conscious, living sword was certainly strange, but more importantly, she was more focused on Shen's explanation of his plan.
"As I am now there is no possible way I could ever defeat The Gods of Light and Darkness. Worst case scenario they destroy the remnant along with me, no chance of regeneration. Luckily however they have left me with the perfect way to gain power even if it's only temporary."
The relics were capable of generating an unlimited amount of power, capable of powering pretty much anything. It was one of the reasons Penny was so dangerous. If not for the damage the Relic of Destruction did to her, she could have fought Shen forever or unleashed the relics' true potential and won.
However, The Godkiller had its own special abilities, one of which was absorbing energy, amplifying and releasing it. It's how he countered Penny's all-out attack on him and utilized the Relic of Destructions' own power against it.
[You know I've seen my fair share of crazy but I think you take the prize.] The Godkiller couldn't help but speak out as it read Shen's thoughts.
"My body is special and extremely durable thanks to how it's mostly made of Life Fibers. So if instead of dispelling that absorbed energy, its instead amplified and channeled into my instead. Just how much stronger do you think I'll be able to become, with four unlimited batteries at my disposal?"
Shen wasn't speaking to Neo, but more to himself. His final goal with killing the Gods who created Remnant and the story of RWBY, and for that he was going to have to become a god-like being himself.