Chapter 60

[|||| =LEVEL 6= ||||]

[|| =!BONUS LEVEL!= ||]

True love… this is not it

"AND STRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR DESSICATED INTEST-"

"GOOD JULIANOS JUST TAKE IT!" the priest cried out. His hands stopped clutching the elder scroll and shoved it against Irisai's chest. She smiled, not that the moth priest could see it, and removed her right hand from his neck as she gently plucked it from his shaking grasp.

"Thank you!" she sang sweetly. The moth priest continued hacking and choking, breathing heavily as he massaged the bruises on his neck where the insane dragonborn had been strangling him just moments before.

"F-fine. Just… just go you mad… elfling," he gasped before hacking again and falling from his knees to the floor.

"Do I just open it? No, it was at the summit… but that was to reverse time. I need to cross Oblivion… Ugh. I need help. And maybe another scroll? Nah, one is probably fine. I just need to cross planes with it."

"You can't - *Cough* - cross planes with an elder scroll you daft lass!" the moth priest complained.

"Nah. However… I know some people who can send me across with it."

"Absurd!"

"Who do you think likes me more? Sheogorath or Sanguine? Or maybe Hermaeus Mora would be more eager to get the scroll? He's also more readily available. Heck, I've got three black books just laying around breezehome. I think I used one to fix an unstable dresser a few months ago."

"Sheogorath," the moth priest coughed.

"I'll try Hermaeus first. He's probably got the knowledge to cross planes of Oblivion too," Irisai decided.

"Definitely Sheogorath," the moth priest muttered. "Prince of madness? Well here's the sodding princess."

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Ugh. tentacles. Blegh." Iris scowled as she arrived in a flurry of black tentacles. All around her were bookshelves filled with tomes of forbidden knowledge and some steep drops without guardrails where there weren't bookshelves leading to an inky black sea. She had tried to read one once. It was filled with gibberish about aetherius and the origins of magic. She preferred shouting and stabbing things, as a proper dragon should.

"HERMAEUS! I've got an elder scroll to trade!" she called out into the air. Nothing happened for a moment. Then reality seemed to tear, a black portal to nothingness beyond it. Thick black leathery tentacles grasped out of it, swaying in the air, some frantically, as though looking for necks to grasp and others languidly, as though caught in a breeze. In the middle of all of them sat a large alien eye with two conjoined pupils.

"Mortal," he spoke in a deep, reverberating voice. "An elder scroll, you say?"

"Yup!" She held the scroll and it's casing up for Hermaeus to see. He eyed it with apparent interest, though with his inhuman appearance it was hard to tell.

"What do you desire?" From the disdain in the daedra's voice he clearly wanted nothing to do with the dragonborn. That he was willing to bargain for it was clue enough that he wanted the scroll.

"I want my hubby back! My destined!" Hermaeus was silent and his tentacles slowed their wiggling. Irisai frowned. "What? What am I missing?"

"That… outsider is not of oblivion," the daedra spoke. Iris was silent as the cogs in his brain worked to a conclusion.

"Whatever." The cogs were missing a few of their kind. "Just bring me to his realm. I'll give you the elder scroll in exchange."

"…" The daedra was silent, seemingly thinking about something.

"Fine," Iris said. She swung her magical travel pack filled with three hundred pounds of junk around and reached inside to slowly pull out another long golden tube. "I'll give you TWO elder scrolls - TWO! - for one eensy teensy favor… and maybe you could tell me what's got you in such a fuss over my hubby?"

"Your… destined is… more akin to a daedra than a man. He did not serve the divines as he claimed."

"So? He seemed pretty awesome to me." Hermaeus let out an audible groan and, unbeknownst to Irisai, wondered if killing the dragonborn would be worth the anger of Sheogorath, Akatosh, and whoever the dragonborn had mingled with in her journey to create absolute chaos on Nirn. He regretfully decided against killing her… for now.

"I will transport you to him in exchange for the scrolls," he gave up. He knew the ritual to send Irisai to her supposed destined. Strong emotions held great power and from the soul of a dragon they were made only the more potent. With how powerful Irisai was, she would have no issues crossing the realms to cause havoc for the poor realm-destroying abomination she was so attached to.

"Sweet!" Irisai chirped in a voice like a bird's song as she dropped the scrolls. It would have caused Hermaeus a minor headache if her were capable of such. A whirl of tentacles appeared from another portal and placed rocks in a short walkway for Irisai, a circular structure at the end of it. More tentacles with styluses appeared and carved an intricate lopsided design into the structure. Rare materials were scattered throughout the circle, three black soul gems, an orb of pure obsidian, and a crystal shaped like a heart were the most recognizable reagents.

"Walk inside and think of your… beloved." Irisai hummed, nodded, and walked casually down the walkway into the middle of the circle. Hermaeus paused and began chanting in a guttural tongue. The reagents shook a little and power flowed into the circle. Irisai glowed briefly.

"Wait, just like tha-" And the dragonborn disappeared from Nirn forevermore.

"Sweet, sweet silence," murmured the daedra, tentacles curling around the scrolls and disappearing to places unknown. The silence in Tamriel was cherished by many, yet to one mad daedra it brought only sorrow as he wept for the disappearance of his pranking buddy.

Far away beyond the known reaches of Oblivion, a woman dressed in armour made of thick bone and scales dropped to the ground, face-planting into asphalt. She groaned and looked upwards to see a desert in every direction, the only indication of life being the road she was conveniently dropped on. Despite being lost in a foreign land, however, the dragonborn grinned, eyes shining with happiness. She was one step closer to her hubby. As she prepared to set down the road, a clairvoyance spell glowed in her hand, ready to show her where her hubby was.

It would take a little more time, she had a whole world to cover after all, but she would find him. Eventually. And then she could finally get her prince in the messed up fairy tale that was her life.

[|||| =NEXT STAGE= ||||]

To lose a world

"He's gone," Ruby said, tasting the words on her tongue almost, as though saying it would make her believe it. "Abyss is… gone." No, it didn't work. She still felt like he'd pop up in the team's room and apologize, make some perfectly reasonable explanation, and go on to cook dinner and sit quietly and patiently while others asked him questions about where he had been.

Their first clue had been Pit, his unimaginatively named 'familiar'. Waking up to see a massive magical bear-snake creature on Abyss' bed had been almost normal. She had met Pit once briefly. She only seemed interested in sleeping and watching whatever Abyss did, so she just shrugged it off like she did to a lot of the stuff her brother did. She spoke a little with her through aura, something she was still sloppy at compared to Jaune or her brother, and found that the kataigida was as confused as she was about Abyss' sudden disappearance. She said she felt a wavepushshiftforce, where she communicated the alien feeling through aura, and suddenly she was asleep on Abyss' bed.

A week passed where Abyss was absent. After two days even Jaune was a little worried. After five days everyone from Atlas to Vacuo knew Abyss Mavros was missing and nobody knew where he was. After two weeks, huge search parties formed by the White Fang and Nature's Bounty, and in some cases even the SDC fanned out to look for him. Bounties for information were placed, speeches were made declaring a national emergency, and rallies were held as conspiracies cropped up. She even had to make a speech about her brother. Her! She, Ruby Rose, made a speech! In front of people! And she only stuttered twice!

But it wasn't yielding anything. Besides a few false alarms nothing was being found, though the search continued. Everyone on the 'in' agreed that he had travelled worlds and something had happened. What it was, exactly, nobody knew, but they knew that the balance of power in Remnant had shifted tremendously with Abyss missing. With him gone it was back to Ozpin and Salem making eyes at each other, neither knowing when Abyss would return, if ever.

But she knew. Ruby was just about certain that her brother was gone. Just like mom. He went off on his own and died doing something heroic. Without him it was just her and auntie and Yang trying her best to just be there, her team left behind as she tried to comfort her, treating her like glass almost and trying to be strong.

She sniffled. "Abyss is… go-" She choked, unable to say it again. Tears formed and fell but she refused to sob, instead slowly breathing raggedly as tears fell again down her face. And of course that was the moment a portal opened up behind her. She whirled around with wide eyes, wondering if her brother was back but just like she knew somewhere in her heart, it was her auntie, her bone mask on again. It had been so long since she had worn that mask that Ruby had forgotten about it, but she thought it meant something.

"Ru-" She cut her auntie off with a hug and another ragged sob, crying tears into her chest. Raven immediately brought her right arm around her, pressing her face into her chest. Her left rested on her sword as usual. Ruby breathed slowly, trying to control the tears. A few sniffles later she pulled herself away, her auntie's trailing hand showed some disappointment. She knew she was hurting inside too. Abyss was family to her too, but she was much better at pretending to be strong than Ruby.

[|||| =NEXT STAGE= ||||]

Ashes

"Here." Ozpin handed the manilla folder to her. Pyrrha blinked in surprise at the act not because it was unexpected but because he was handing her the folder when Jaune, the de-facto leader in Abyss' absence, was just to her left. Ruby, looking tired and worried still, was staring at the floor on her right.

"What's… mountain glen? I've heard of that." She read over the mission summary and muttered.

"Professor Oobleck asked specifically for your team. It's too dangerous for most first-year students but you are hardly typical for first-years." Ozpin said, looking haggard himself. Hie eyes were sunken and he leaned on his cane for support. The work to organize the search efforts was taking a toll on him.

"I… suppose we can take this," Pyrrha said cautiously. "Why not a normal mission?"

"It would be futile," He waved the concern away. "You three are more worldly than most students that graduate, with the possible exception of you, miss Rose." Ruby blinked and looked up for a moment at her name being mentioned only to look back down a moment later, seeing that she wasn't being addressed.

"If Mister Mavros were here," he continued. "I had a mission in northern Vacuo to hunt a new powerful species of grimm. However, without his ability to create portals the mission will return to the hands of professional huntsmen." Pyrrha nodded and glanced at the mission summary again.

"We'll take it."

[|||| =-= ||||]

Bullets pinged against her shield, directed there by her semblance to protect her legs. She easily held it tall against her enemies. A quick series of cracks rang out and the bullets stopped as the white fang were dispatched by Ruby's rifle. That was her cue. She lowered her shield and charged.

The poor grunts never stood a chance as she knocked the weapons from their hands and broke their limbs.

"Done." Jaune called from her right. She allowed her weapons to break down and fuse into her jacket again, the enemies apparently dealt with.

"We need to get to the front!" She called urgently.

"Ruby, dash to the head of the train!" Ruby nodded at Jaune's order and disappeared to a storm of rose petals that flew over the train. "Come on, we'll catch up!" Jaune said to her. It was meaningless since they were both already running but nice anyways. She swallowed her fear at how wrong her first mission had gone and her disappointment that she had lost the one person she really wanted to share it with.

Such thoughts were pushed away as Jaune kicked in the door to a train car violently, surging through to find no grunts. The other end of the car was knocked open and Pyrrha ran to follow when she flinched at an explosion behind her. ANd then another. And another.

"They're blowing up the train cars!" Jaune yelled. Her eyes widened as the words registered and she hastened towards the front.

More grunts were beaten down and she felt flashes of regret that they were on a suicide mission in the first place. The train would crash or not but either way they would lose their lives. It took a certain amount of guts to do such a thing. She still didn't know if she had that in her. It made her respect the men she beat either way. Jaune apparently did not have such deep thoughts as he threw the White Fang members aside without much delicacy.

They were just a few cars away. Just two. Just one. Then problems started. A woman appeared, jumping to the top of the train where they were runnign, dual blades bared against them. Her face was masked and a cloak over her.

"Are you in charge?" Jaune asked quickly. The figure was silent and he sighed before rushing forwards. His sword clashed with her as his shield was raised to defend himself. But to both their surprise her own sword glowed white and she slashed with her offhand mightily. A great gust of wind threw Jaune off and nearly off the train out of the sheer surprise at magic being used.

"A maiden?!" Pyrrha yelped. The figure rushed her and she wondered where Ruby was. Was she hurt? Captured? Dead?! Then she stopped thinking as her spear and shield were unleashed once more in battle.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Fire!" A strong voice commanded. Pyrrha blinked the dust out of her eyes and tried to get up. Her hand slipped once and she caught herself, getting up properly the second time. She saw grimm charging a line of… security guards? Then the emblem on their shoulder registered with her. A tree with dust crystals in the branches. Nature's Bounty? What were they doing here?! She attempted to stand but was pushed down.

"The train crashed. Please, we're not sure if you're-"

"I'm fine." She interrupted tersely. She pushed the hand off her and looked around. Jaune was standing already, looking with a mixed expression of joy and anger at the line of security guards.

"They were ready," He said without looking at her. "The train crashed but apparently there was a… company break. I'm not sure on the details. Now they're just… killing grimm. I was told to stay out of the way."

"How long has it been?" She asked.

"Two minutes since the crash." She looked again at the organized soldiers and the woman leading them, a long red blade in her hand. She looked like a huntress, almost. Her uniform was black with red plates of armour lightly over vital organs. Her face looked vaguely familiar somehow. Ruby was beside her somehow, her weapon aimed at the breach.

As she looked at the waves of grimm, effortlessly gunned down by the officers and a few gathered huntsmen and huntresses, she wondered what she was worth. The cloaked woman, somehow a wielder of magic, had stood toe to toe with her and Jaune, keeping them occupied, wide blasts of magic evening the playing field on their small train car. She hadn't stood against her, hadn't stopped the car. It made her wonder. She was so far above other huntresses or huntsmen but when it came to the people like Abyss, people who belonged in the shadowy battlefield of magic and power, where did she belong, and wat could she do?

Because seeing the grimm fall under a hail of bullet fire she knew that she didn't have a place among those firing. She felt like she belonged somewhere else. She just didn't know where.

[|||| =NEXT STAGE= ||||]

A larger, darker picture

Salem swished the wine in her ancient goblet around, sipping in a way that absolutely radiated displeasure. The reason? Mavros. Abyss Mavros, that is. He had been so interesting. A wizard? In their day and age? It had to do with the strange split in dimensions some time ago, something that caused so many subtle changes in Remnant, but out of all the changes, some annoying, some beneficial, and some plainly bizarre, he was the most impactful, and far from in a bad way.

He was a natural. He learned magic like a fish swims and had a mind more open than any she'd seen in recent history. Normally she had to cultivate such openness such as in dear Cinder, who was horribly annoyed when her blossoming future disappeared from the board entirely.

But what Salem really cared about was the conversation. She had no equal in Remnant. Mavros changed that, if only a little. He was not her equal but he had the potential to be one day. And he was in the end, taking up the mantle of the void Archwizard, an old memory from her time she had quite honestly forgotten.

And then he left.

The now empty goblet shattered in her grasp. She looked down in annoyance at the shards in her hand, tilting her hand to watch the crystals fall to the floor, breaking into smaller pieces. A growl and a wave of her hand threw the shards violently into the wall away from her, a grimm scurrying to clean it.

She stalked down the hallways of her castle, striding fast enough that her dark cloak fluttered behind her looking for all the world like a flickering shadow. She met Watts in the corridor, but upon seeing her mood he stepped aside and held his breath. She ignored him, to his poorly concealed relief, and continued to her oldest library, the one filled with tomes older than her in a few cases, some too delicate to be even opened for all their age.

She had such high hopes. She briefly fancied ruling the world together with Mavros. He was handsome, no doubt, powerful, surprisingly mature, truly a wonderful person to rule the world with. But it would be awkward to rule the world with somebody not your family. Perhaps marriage would fix that if she were not old beyond reason and utterly uninterested in true romance of any sort.

And yet she had awakened an old desire. A desire for companionship. She had contented herself with her peons and pets for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to talk without regard for manipulations and subtle ploys, simply a reasonable discussion between equals. It was addictive, having somebody to talk to without expectation, and she would not stand for losing one of the few mortals capable of decent conversation (or perhaps he had obtained immortality when she wasn't looking. She would ask him next she saw him. If he hadn't worked through immortality she would be happy to provide it for a fair price).

Priceless tomes and ancient grimoires stuffed with power were carelessly thrown aside. Mavros would cry if he saw books filled with the magical arcana he happily studied independently so misused, but to Salem they were worthless if they didn't provide her with her goal, that goal being a way of crossing dimensions to pull Mavros back. If she could revive the dead, which was rather simple, if expensive in practice, she could certainly follow in his footsteps, dimensional anchors be damned.

Three hours later she was hardly closer to a solution.

A day later she had a clue.

Another day and the clue was found to lead nowhere.

Finally, after four days of studying and dozens of scorched tomes, Salem delighted in finding a ritual which might bring Mavros back, or at least provide a method by which she could contact him.

First she must astrally project herself beyond her plane, which was easier said than done. Magic and aura decayed rapidly within the void between worlds. A short test showed how her first attempt failing rapidly, though she lost nothing in the process.

"Mila-"

"Watts," she growled. "I am busy. Be very quick."

"Of course," he conceded. "Abyss Mavros has had search parties dispatched after him by the SDC, Nature's Bounty, and the White Fang. He is not on Remnant."

"Do you believe that I did not realize that?" she hissed, spinning to face him. His eyes widened in fear and surprise before he bowed his head.

"My apologies, Milady. I will leave you to your work, then," he said a little quickly before almost jogging out of the library. Salem's eyes narrowed and she waved her hand, a mirror appearing before her. She inspected her face and a frustrated sigh left her. Her eyes glowed with black power. She must be getting lax, to let her magic escape her so. Or it may be her temper. The accidental magics accompanying her lashing out were sign enough that she was less austere than usual as of late. It was stress, of course, but that simply made her venture to retrieve Mavros more important.

It took nearly a month before she had her first success. She had to gather residual mana and aura from Mavros by harvesting several of the grimm he had crafted with her as practice, but with samples of his aura she located the dimension he resided in at the time, remarkably the same as the one she had sent him to previously. Not that that mattered. She had no way of reaching the dimension before acquiring his location.

Next was a matter of contacting him. She reached through to the dimension, touching the familiar feeling of void upon his soul-

A massive presence cast its gaze upon her. A dragon. A god. A… little girl?

"You have reached out through the gap. What do you want?" an irritable voice spoke to her. Salem was shocked for only a moment at attracting the attention of a deity - something she hated so dearly after the curse of the god of light.

"I am searching for Abyss Mavros. He is wanted."

"He is," the being agreed. "I too desire him. He is mine. You cannot have him."

"I do not desire to take him, merely to speak with him," Salem quickly said. She cursed herself for further disrespecting a deity but continued on, feeling annoyance in her chest at the task Mavros had brought upon her, even if by accident. Nevertheless, the voice was silent.

The silence lasted just long enough to make her fearful before the deity spoke once more. "He gives me silence. He is not allowed to leave. I will not tolerate loneliness… are you family?"

The way the deity spoke was jarring, having such ineloquence. The gods of light and darkness were far more verbose and grand as they deceived mortals for their amusement and some great plan. But this one was direct enough that some deeper meaning was difficult to fathom. It made her uneasy.

"I am a friend to Mavros. I do not wish for his… silence. I do not wish to steal him away."

The deity seemed to grunt in a way reminiscent of a pouting child even through their link of souls - was this truly a deity? - and spoke one final time.

"I will tell him of you… when I deign to do so. Do not reach for him again. He still grieves and is moving on. I will not have my apostle harbour false hope." The connection cut off and Salem stood silent in her library, a ritual circle designed to breach dimensions below her. She was silent for a minute before growling at the machinations of gods. Do they ever cease toying with lives? Perhaps she would never be free.

Whatever the case only the grueling, arduous option was available to her. She must wait for the whimsey of the gods, one of the least reliable forces in her world or any other. Great…

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