chapter 24

It was weiss's first day under atlas specialist winter. The training was grueling and incredibly stressful on the body.

She wouldn't complain. She was a soldier now.

Soldiers don't complain.

Soldiers simply do what they're told.

That was her life now. She would ascend the military ladder. For the sake of a better remnant, her father must be removed from his position.

He was a tumour upon mantle, because of him, the faunus had suffered. She had suffered. Her mother had suffered.

That was all his fault. But she wouldn't stoop to his level. Murder was something she understood, but weiss would not condone it.

It was just a different means to an end.

Weiss had been a prim and proper lady at one point. No more. Her upbringing would limit her no longer. She would train.

Until she couldn't stand.

Until her bones were shattered.

Until every last drop of blood had left her body!

That was her promise.

No, that was her conviction!

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Conviction

.

.

.

.

This man never had much of it. Why would a street rat hold feelings like conviction.

When you're living in the gutter and struggling to survive, who gives two shits about a man's conviction when you could lose your life at any time.

All that mattered on the streets was how you survived. Infamy was a careful balance.

Become too infamous and you've got a bunch of wannabees trying to usurp you and heroes tryna take you down.

If you're not infamous enough, no one takes you seriously and you become a joke in the criminal world.

It's a careful balance, but with one action he'd removed himself from the equation entirely.

Though, he did regret his actions. Leaving neo was a terrible mistake, he figured that hans would take care of her.

Well... we all know how well that went. He was now a statue missing his left arm, much like how he was missing his right arm.

His sleeve billowed in the wind.

"Dear oum. Is it always so windy in vacuo?"

Roman was disappointed. Disappointed in himself. How could he have left her alone?

That's his whole purpose of being here in vacuo. Roman had to find his daughter. He knew better than anyone else how unstable neo has always been. The girl always had an innate desire for murder.

When she's with someone close to her, she can restrain it quite easily. But when she's left alone...

Roman had tried to control it by letting neo kill the worst of the worst. That only satiated her desire for so long.

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This familiar darkness... I'm here again.

Wherever here is...

Last thing I remember was breaking that womans neck, then... nothing. It was like that brief period when I was bleeding out in London.

Did I die? Quite possible.

"You didn't die, hans günsche. You are very much still alive. At least in spirit."

Hans turned to see the god of darkness, once again.

"why..." there were a number of questions he had, why he was alive, why the god of darkness had taken an interest in him, why he was here.

"you are still alive as I still need you, hans günsche. No matter how you view yourself, you are useful to me. This may sound cruel, but you are my hope for this world. My brother. He wants to destroy this world. Brother has lost all hope in his own creations. I have not. What he wants is pure perfection. But after travelling through many different worlds, I've long since realised that impossibility."

Hans was silent. He had never expected for such a role to ever be thrust upon him.

"and that is where you come in, hans günsche. I needed an apostle. A powerful one, at least by remnants standards. So I contacted a man I met on my adventures. Possibly one of the strongest mortals I had ever met. A man named kischur zelretch schweinorg. He showed me your case. Within this vast multiverse, you were a person who confused me, there was not a single world he could find in which you were happy."

I almost chuckled. So my misery is a constant? What a joke.

"that was when i had decided, you would be my apostle. You are no naive child who stubbornly believes everything can be solved through idealism alone. You are a man who has seen humanity's dark side through and through. A man with enough blood on his hands to drown continents. A perfect candidate to become the next God of darkness."

What? No. No. No. No No. He couldn't be hearing this right. The next God of darkness? This... this was too much. He just wanted to live his second chance through to the end.

That was all he wanted.

"I'm afraid that you are necessary. I cannot defeat my brother alone. For that would destroy all of remnant. But you, I will grant you more of my power. Then, I want you to end the shadow war between Salem and ozma. Their quarrel was caused by our intervention, and I want you to end it. The humans have suffered far too long as a result."

"ozma..."

"you know him as ozpin. Ozma Reincarnates after each time he dies. His personality and memories slowly meld with the person's mind each time making him nothing more than an amalgamation of souls who can never rest. You are the hope of remnant, and I have given you a tool to use for your mission. Once you escape your petrification, you will find a pristine blade in front of you. That blade was forged with a fraction my own divinity. That human was truly impressive..."

Hans was still processing. He was the key to it all? The deciding factor in this world? Would he be the one to bring peace? He, the Sturmbannführer's tool of war, was going to bring peace?

That was ludicrous by any standard.

"However, the branwen women sliced your arm off during your petrification. So the first order of business will be a replacement. Though, a weak prosthetic won't do. And thus, once you break free of my brothers shackles. Head to vacuo... and use that sword to cut open the vault. There lies the sword of destruction. It likely won't be usable for some time."

"a savior... instead of... a destroyer... doesn't sound... too bad..."

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The heroic spirit watched as a massive influx of shadow covered her masters statue. What an intriguing phenomenon!

She was struggling to not be blown back by the force.

Oh my, to think her master had a connection with a god. Especially one with such an outrageous amount of power!

The pillar of darkness slowly thinned and dissipated to reveal the one armed man staring up to the sky. Any stone that had once covered him had gone revealing his inhuman looks.

Merlin could feel something stirring inside of her. Her blood yearned for him.

"oh my, it seems just his looks have awakened something in me. Oh, to taint this pure maidens' heart, how cruel!" The gods apostle turned to her, the cold and robotic look in his eyes was as unchanging as usual.

In a blink, the divine blade had nicked her throat. The freezing cold of the blade ran shivers through her body.

From what the magus could understand, he couldn't speak. The scar on his throat made that a reasonable assumption. His shirt had moved enough for her to faintly see it.

Along with him opening his mouth only for no noise to come out.

"oh, it seems you can't speak. Well, not that it matters. You see, as we are master and servant, you and I share a telepathic link." The man seemed uncaring.

'like so, you can hear me within your head.' Hans swiftly sheathed his blade with a scabbard he'd made of darkness, as if it was second nature.

'who are you?' His voice was slow, a hum in his voice as if it had been such a long time since he last properly spoke.

"ah, I believe you may know me. My name is merlin ambrosius! I take it you know of me?"

'I do.'

"hah... you could at least contribute by expanding upon what you know instead of letting this poor lady carry the conversation. Honestly, have you never had a friend?"

'no.'

"..... I didn't expect that response. Um... Well... I... I suppose, where to?"

'vacuo.'

"we're not on earth so I don't know where that is." Hans didn't respond and started walking towards the entrance of beacon. Sword gripped tightly in hand.

"where are you going?" He didn't answer and only pushed through the rubble to the entrance of beacon.

The place was a travesty of broken rock and old memories.

"so many broken dreams here..." The tool of war pulled a large stone out of the way revealing the elevator to ozpin's office. His blade gripped firmly between his teeth.

Hans spat the blade out and it sank straight into his shadow.

"a pocket dimension within your shadow. Handy." He pressed the elevator button...

And he waited

And waited

The elevator was broken, kommandant rose from his shadow and forcefully tore the door open.

"strange... are those familiars?" Her master collapsed to his knees and looked at his hand.

It had been completely covered by darkness.

'... it seems using my shadow soldiers is too much. My body needs to acclimate to his power... I think.' Suprisingly, he was dead on with his guess.

For a man who knew very little of magic the principle was quite simple.

A glass that has too much liquid in it will overflow. Though, in his case, the glass was more likely to shatter than anything else.

"ara ara~ you're far more fragile than you look. Mr handsome~." Merlin had fairly easily helped her new master to his feet.

Hans could only notice that she's far stronger than she looks. At least he knows she might be useful in combat.

The two pushed into the elevator as kommandant disappeared.

"mind explaining why we're taking this elevator?" Hans pushed the button and the slight stoppage of the elevator worried her at first before it began to ascend.

'weapons.' Her deadpan expression told him everything.

"... you really are bad at social interaction. From what I can infer, there are three magical items at the top of the tower. One is a divine object that is the absolute antithesis of the divinity in your blade. The second and third are imbued with something similar to an enchantment. I can't identify its origins though." Hans merely gave her a look she couldn't identify.

Merlin ambrosius. The original tale is far different to his current experience.

Merlin after so long of advising Arthur grew jealous that he found love so easily when merlin in his long life had never once fallen in love. And so, in his twisted mind, he decided it would be fine if he was to force Morgan le fay to love him.

But she deceived him into teaching her magic and one night, Morgan put him to sleep inside of a tree and slowly sealed him away bit by within the tree.

However, the captain had a large amount of experience reading someone. He didn't get any feeling of deception... madness... or hidden desires.

The elevator stopped as the door slowly opened.

"my~ it seems after an awkward elevator ride, we're here!" It didn't help that merlins appearance deviated drastically from the legend.

Merlin was not a woman to his knowledge nor one with massive breasts and a buxom figure fitting of a goddess.

It just... didn't make sense. Such a peculiar deviation from the original legend would have been recorded.

Though, he supposed such twists of fate were not unnatural in the cruel thing that is...

Existence.

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