Chapter 70. Worse Than Death

Silva POV

Ah, the beauty of the city of Vale, tall buildings, diverse culture, and home to the next Vytal Festival. Well putting that aside I am currently working on building a new mansion from scratch for me, Emerald, and Morgana at the outskirts of the city, along with a new road to the city. Thankfully, while the paperwork was tedious it did not take me long to get a land deed for the city's outskirts to build a place for here at Vale.

While I also plan to get a place at Patch Island that can come later after a few other things that need to be dealt with. For starters, Qrow is out of any reception area for me to call him and I swung by Atlas, Minstral, Anima's Wildlands, and the Menagerie but no luck. I set an alert on my scroll to let me know when he gets in calling range so I can give him a piece of my mind about his newfound daughter Morgana then drag him to her.

I sigh thinking about my foster cousin, Morgana, I did not just open a portal to Qrow right away because probably right now he is on a dangerous mission for Ozpin so I will wait to talk to him first before taking him to his daughter. Emerald seems to be getting along with Morgana pretty well which gives me some peace of mind that the 2 of them have a chance to be friends in the future.

I am going all out on building this mansion which is, actually becoming more of a castle than anything to give some protection from Grimm. I got plenty of materials leftover from constructing Oath and my previous experience in construction is speeding up the process on the castle. Plus, I am enjoying the dumbfounded looks of both Emerald and Morgana seeing me build a castle with my summons.

I set up a campsite for the next couple of days while I get to work on my construction job where Morgana's Misfortune semblance causes a few problems. Like attracting Grimm, a few construction accidents that destroy my weaker summons, and even finding a snake in my boot, not a big deal all in all. Good thing I am making the castle extra sturdy to prevent any accidents from happening.

Throughout it all, Morgana just kept on apologizing blaming herself and I told her.

Silva: It is not your fault so stop apologizing, Morgana.

Morgana protested.

Morgana: But...

I sighed then held my hand up to stop her and asked.

Silva: Morgana, are you purposefully causing this run of bad luck?

Morgana: Well no, but...

I stopped her and said.

Silva: No buts! Morgana, I can tell you are a sweet girl but if you continue to feel responsible for all the bad luck that happens when, in fact, you can't help it, so you are just hurting yourself. So Morgans can you promise me something?

Morgana: What do you want me to promise?

I kneeled to her so that we at eye level with each other and said to her with a smile.

Silva: Can you promise me that even if you feel like your the source of bad luck to not let that stop you from finding your happiness in life.

Morgana looked at me and nodded with a grunt, I then told her.

Silva: Morgana I need to hear you promise me.

Morgana: I promise...

I messed up her hair, much to her annoyance, and said.

Silva: Atta girl.

She pouted at me for messing up her hair which made me laugh, when I tried to get up I slipped and landed on my back. This made Morgana laugh at me instead of apologizing to me which honestly made me happy for her. This also made me more determined to experiment on how to modify semblances for her sake. I managed to finish the castle in just a week that I decided to call Nightwall for it is a wall against the darkness in a certain aspect.

Seeing both Emerald's and Morgana's jaws drop from seeing the inside of Castle Nightwall was satisfying. Now with this done, I started working on my next plan, breaking into prison to gather some lab rats for my experiments.

( A few days later)

I shifted into the form of a wasp and entered the prison through the ventilation shafts. Using Echo Tremor to make a mental map of the prison through sonar detection I made my way to the central security room where the prisoners were being monitored. I slipped through the vents then changed back into my original form.

There were only 2 guards in the security room watching the camera screens that covered the entire prison. I quietly knocked them out with magic then hacked into the security system to loop the security footage to hide my tracks, thank you Atlas for all your advanced technology and skills, then looked up the worse criminals the prison had to offer, murders, rapists, and even the odd cannibal or 2. Finding what I wanted I sneaked around to the lowest part of the prison where the very worse scum that Vale had to offer, reside.

Thankfully avoiding detection is easy with Echo Tremor's sonar telling me where all the guards and prisoners are at. It did not take me long to reach the lowest level of the prison once I got there I saw all the prisoners in isolation rooms to keep them under control. I started at the nearest cell and quietly broke the lock on it then slammed the prisoner against the wall with a shockwave then stored him away in my travel bags' pocket dimension prison sector.

Repeating this process for every prisoner, after getting all the prisoners, now lab rats, I took out the soul crystal with Raven's semblance imprinted on it and opened a portal to Castle Nightwall.

This was too easy.

General POV

Within Silva's travel bag is the prison sector of the bag's pocket dimension, Silva stood in front of a cell of one of his new lab rats. The man in the cell was a famous murderer that once plagued the city of Vale and Silva entered the cell while the murderer was strapped to a chair. The murderer looked at the white tiger Faunus and said with a psychotic smile.

Murderer: Well now it has been a while since I have had to skin a Faunus but I am happy all the same to see if I have gotten rusty after all these years.

As the murderer tried to breakthrough his restraints Silva just ignored him and placed his hand on the murderer's head. The murderer then said looking at Silva in confusion.

Murderer: Just what in the heck are you do-...

The next moment the murderer started to scream in pure unbridled agony and the murderer started to foam in the mouth. Then the murderer screamed no more and fell silent while Silva just said analyzing what happened to the murderer in a tone of indifference.

Silva: Hmm, quick and large changes to a soul causes pain then a mental breakdown. So I either need to do small gradual changes over time or maybe improve my finesse over manipulation of souls where the core of a semblance resides.

Silva sighed feeling that this was going to take a while to figure out to make it so that Morgana can switch off her Misfortune semblance without hurting her in any way. Silva then spoke to himself while thinking about how to handle his next experiment.

Silva: Well on to the next one.

Silva conjured a bluish flame and cremated the murderer's body then went to the next cell to try again to change the soul within a person without killing them or causing great harm to them.

( Chapter bonus)

Melanie POV

4 years since me and my twin Miltia have seen that big bad cat, Silva Cloud, and when we came to Vale to be bodyguards for Hei Xiong or Junior, that is his nickname. Overall, Junior is a pretty decent guy and a great information broker that knows everything that happens in the kingdom of Vale. His men however are just pathetic to the point that I and Miltia question why they are here in the first place.

They all wear black suits and hats with red sunglasses while carrying either a handgun or ax as a weapon. I think back on what Mom has told me and my sister about Silva's adventures, Anima's Wildlands, the Menagerie, and most recently Atlas. The fact that Silva is making money off the bounty hunters and assassins that come after him by selling his location is ironic because they are going after him for the price of his head.

I sighed wondering when I will see him again because compared to the idiots I and my sister have to deal with regularly make him seem like a real prize. Not that I would admit it because Silva would just tease me like he always does much to my annoyance, but still the thought of it brings a smile to my face. Miltia called out to me.

Miltia: Melanie, are you thinking about Silva again?

She had a slight smile on her face when I curtly replied.

Melanie: No!

She just chuckled at my reply then asked me.

Miltia: Sister do you think Silva kept his promise to save himself for us for his first time?

Though I think he probably did my answer was.

Melanie: He better or I am done with him.

I am not being honest because while it would tick me off if he did break his promise I know I would forgive him after a while. Miltia looked at me in mock surprise and said.

Miltia: Really? Then I guess I hope he broke his promise so that I can have him to myself...

I looked at Miltia feeling slightly betrayed but she chuckled at my expression and assured me.

Miltia: I am just teasing you Melanie I would not take Silva for purely myself and leave you behind. Plus, I am fairly sure he will keep his promise so don't worry.

I turned my head away from my sister's teasing and I then felt her hugging me as she told me.

Miltia: I miss him too but I am sure we will meet him again soon after all he did tell us he plans to attend Beacon.

I smiled a bit and replied.

Melanie: Yeah whatever...

Miltia huffed in amusement at the fact I wasn't being honest but still I hope to see him soon.