160

Chapter 160:

She's strong! That was the first thought that flew through Ruby's head as her sword clashed against Salem's. She met the downward swing of Salem's weapon with a sideways strike from Bara, in her left hand, striking across her body, aiming to knock Salem's slash aside. However, her own blade merely glanced off the broad flat of Salem's weapon, which continued downward, undaunted. Because of that, Ruby was forced to shift her balance and alter her steps, slipping to the side as the slash passed dangerously close to her face, before dancing back as Salem's sword struck the ground with enough force to send a massive plume of dirt shooting into the air.

In a flash, Ruby was behind Salem, both her blades swinging for the woman's back. However, she was shocked when Salem turned, dragging the blade of her sword through the dirt, the ground seeming to offer no resistance to the weapon's movements, before Salem pulled it out into an upward slash, which struck Ruby's weapons. Ruby found herself knocked backwards.

Not as much power as Kyo-nii, Ruby analyzed cooly, but still stronger than me.

Salem's brute strength was incredible. Of that there was no doubt. However, Salem's power came from pure arm-strength. Compared to the power that Kyo fed into his technique, from the movement of his body to the Flow of his Aura, it was lacking. Of course, that didn't change the fact that, in terms of sheer brute strength, Salem eclipsed Ruby by a significant margin.

The other issue was that Salem was fast too. She didn't have Shukuchi, but was able to make up the difference with the sheer strength of her legs. Ruby wondered if that power came from her magic, or if it was merely the result of untold centuries of devoted weight-training...or maybe not-so-devoted. Even if Salem had trained off and on, add it all up over the passage of countless years, and she was bound to realize gains of some kind. Of course, that was assuming that the regular rules of muscular function applied to someone who didn't experience aging, and appeared to be locked perpetually in the same physical state. Thinking about it too hard was probably just going to give Ruby a headache.

There wasn't much time to wonder about it though. Salem immediately reversed the course of her sword, bringing it back down once more. Ruby danced backwards, barely missing the tip as it swung down past her nose, then had to throw herself backwards even farther to escape the shockwave that resulted from that powerful swing impacting the ground. Touching down, Ruby was startled by Salem flying through the dust cloud created by her own attack, charging straight at her.

What followed was an intense flurry of slashes. Salem was able to use the raw strength of her arms to change the path of her heavy sword in ways that would have been virtually impossible for most other swordsmen. Because of that, despite the incredible size and weight of her weapon, Salem wielded it as though it weighed no more than a feather, and yet Ruby's strongest attempts to parry couldn't divert its course in the slightest.

So instead, Ruby resorted to evasion. Her body seemed to double, then triple, as she wove in and out of Salem's barrage of attacks. After an intense few seconds of this, she saw an opening. Ducking beneath a slash, Ruby dropped down low, then darted forward, coming in under Salem's guard, slashing with Bara and Ibara as she rushed past Salem's side. She heard Salem's grunt of pain when the blades bit into her flesh. However, as Ruby turned around, she saw no evidence of the wounds that her weapons should have dealt. There was no time for pondering though, as Salem immediately turned around, leading with a powerful sideways swing, one that would have cleaved Ruby in two at the waist, had she remained where she was.

Ruby escaped by jumping straight up, pulling her legs up to bring her knees to the level of her chest. Salem's sword passed just beneath the soles of her sandals. Ruby had kept the actual rise of her jump to a minimum, allowing her to almost immediately kick her legs downward, her feet striking the earth, then allowing her to lunge forward. Bringing her swords back together, Ruby thrust Akaibara straight for Salem's chest.

At the same time, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the sky, striking Akaibara's pommel, then racing through the handle, then up the blade to the tip, swirling around it like a spiraling drill, the tip stretching out in conjunction with Ruby's thrust.

"Natsu no Takenoko!"

The tip of Ruby's sword struck the upraised palm of Salem's left hand, which Salem had brought up to intercept the thrust. A sphere of black appeared there, forming a barrier that held the tip of Ruby's attack at bay, the lightning crackling angrily as it was held back by a barrier of pure gravity.

However, despite her best efforts, Salem found her feet leaving the ground. Then, with a roar, the lightning concentrated at the tip of Ruby's sword exploded, launching her backwards across the ground. Salem struck and plowed a furrow through the earth. Ruby followed her, raising Akaibara over her head. Lightning lanced downwards to strike the sword again. Ruby immediately split the blade again, curved arcs of lightning connecting Bara and Ibara, dancing in a broad curve above and behind Ruby as she closed in.

Suddenly, Salem was upright again. There had been no sign of any technique, no brilliant break-fall, not even something as simple as pushing herself up off the ground. All of a sudden, Salem shot up, her body just seeming to reverse its course back into a stranding position. She raised her sword to meet Ruby's swinging blades, fending off her strikes. Not being metal, the sword, or rather...the Grimm shaped like a sword, did not conduct the intense electrical energy down into Salem's hand. Or maybe it was Salem's magic that was keeping it from doing that. Ruby couldn't be sure.

However, the power of Ruby's swing, enhanced by the elemental energy of the lightning, drove Salem back and down, her feet sinking into the earth. However, Salem's strength was nothing to scoff at. She kept Ruby's attack, and both her swords, at bay with her right hand, holding the handle of her sword, while the left hand came up, fingers pointing down, but the palm facing out...towards Ruby's stomach.

With a deafening roar, a torrent of black and red energy erupted outwards, engulfing Ruby, and digging yet another trench across the landscape.

"Ruby!" screamed Yang, taking a step forward, only to be stopped by her uncle.

"That's cheating," growled Nora. "I thought she said she was gonna beat Ruby with a sword."

"But she never said anything about not using her magic," Ren noted softly.

"Not that Ruby would fall for something like that," said Jaune, smirking.

Ruby reappeared behind Salem again. The arcs of lightning that connected her swords condensed together into a single stream, which then condensed into a set of orbs, almost like beads on a necklace, before they separated from one another to hover behind Ruby.

"Hoshizora no Mai!"

Even as Salem turned to follow her, Ruby launched into a furious offense of her own, the orbs of plasma dancing through the air around her, while Ruby attacked with her swords. Salem's own blade was a blur, the woman wielding it to fend off both Ruby's blades and the plasma. Even though she was holding her own, Salem was still forced on the defensive, gradually giving ground to Ruby's attacks.

"What's she retreating for?" wondered Qrow.

"Um...Ruby's attacks, right?" asked Jaune.

"Yeah, but why?" Qrow asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" Yang asked back. "She doesn't want to-...Oh..."

The observers' eyes widened as they realized what Qrow was getting at. Salem was immortal, so it hardly should have mattered if she defended or not. She could have just stood there and taken Ruby's attacks without any issue at all. Yet she still utilized defensive techniques.

"Well, even if she can come back from it, getting killed must still hurt," suggested Blake.

"That's true," admitted Qrow. "But...if it would give her an opening, I could see her taking a lethal attack for a chance to get a decisive blow of her own in."

"Then maybe it's a ploy," suggested Ciel.

"A ploy...?" wondered Penny, glancing at her partner.

"I see...a ploy to manipulate Ruby's perception," observed Rain.

"By fighting her more like a normal opponent, maybe she's trying to plant the idea in Ruby's head," added Piper. "When they fight like that, it must get hard to remember that Salem's immortal. After all, if she's defending herself against lethal attacks, then it would make sense that she's vulnerable to them, at least according to the logic of ordinary people."

"So she's trying to trick Ruby into thinking of her as a normal opponent, the kind who'll go down after taking a fatal blow," summarized Blake.

"Then she would strike after that, to take advantage of Ruby lowering her guard," added Ren.

Jaune had yet to take his eyes away from the fight. He'd listened to what they had to say. However, he couldn't see Ruby letting herself get tripped up by some simple trick like that. Maybe Salem thought she would. But that was definitely a mistake on her part. You won't get the better of Ruby that easily, he thought.

Whirling her sword through rapid, circular motions, Salem batted away another of the plasma orbs that Ruby directed at her, before whirling it back around to catch a pair of slashes from Ruby's blades. "This grows tiresome," she commented dryly.

She brought up her left hand, eldritch power flickering in its palm, preparing to blast away the attacking plasma, and Ruby as well.

However, she froze when Ruby's eyes flashed. It was an intense burst of silver light, practically a strobe. All at once, Salem's back arched, her entire body overcome by a sense of searing agony. Her planned attack was forgotten, the magic snuffed out before she could even utilize it. Now Ruby darted in, taking advantage of the opening presented by Salem's pain. Even in her pained state though, Salem was able to maneuver her sword between her body and Ruby's attack.

However, Ruby's own swords cleaved effortlessly through Salem's. At the last second, Salem realized that her sword had been dyed a dull gray color, now looking like nothing more than a stone sculpture. Too late, she realized that her sword...or rather, the Grimm she had twisted to mimic the shape and function of a sword...had been petrified by Ruby's Silver Eyes. Now the blade shattered like brittle shale against the Aura-enhanced blades of Ruby's weapons, which continued through to bite through Salem's body.

At the same time, the orbs of plasma that Ruby controlled converged on Salem from multiple directions, blasting into her, then punching through her, exiting in a ring-formation, the orbs positioned at equidistant points in a circle around Salem's body, now trailing threads of lightning, which sank into Salem's skin, binding her muscles.

As soon as Ruby had finished her strike, she'd vanished. She reappeared in the air above Salem, bringing her swords together again. A new swirling eye opened in the storm clouds above her, lightning crackling across it, before various bolts met in the center, merging together, a shaft of lightning stretching down to meet the upraised tip of Ruby's sword.

"Ame-no-nu-hoko!"

Ruby swung Akaibara downwards, and the lightning that had gathered above her descended with a roar, like the shaft of a giant spear. It plunged straight down, completely enveloping Salem where she stood. The impact of the blast shook the earth, cracks extending out from where the shaft of lightning had struck, dust and debris flying through the air.

And then it ended, the echoing rumble of the intense thunder fading away. In the space where Ruby's attack had landed, there was a black abyss, a hole punched through the earth itself, like a giant stake had been pounded down, then removed.

Touching down, Ruby stared down into the dark abyss she'd created, her expression somber.

A swirling cloud of black dust streamed up from the ground behind her. It condensed inwards, Salem's body reforming in Ruby's blindspot. Salem raised her right hand, red and black energy streaming out from her palm in two directions, her fingers curling around it. The energy solidified into a curved, broad, single-edged sword, much like a falchion. Rather than a Grimm this time, this sword appeared to be composed of something like black glass. Salem swung the blade in a broad arc, aiming for Ruby's neck.

Not even looking at the incoming attack, Ruby raised her left arm over her head, so that Akaibara's blade extended vertically down her right side. Salem's sword met Ruby's, then shattered to pieces, none of the shards coming close to scratching Ruby's body.

Without even hesitating, Ruby turned to her left, bringing her arm down in front of her so that, as she stepped through the turn, she brought Akaibara flashing around in a broad slash of her own, aiming straight for Salem's midsection. Salem brought up both her hands, conjuring another pair of black glass swords. However, they shattered upon contact with Ruby's weapon. Salem herself was blasted backwards, her feet plowing furrows through the earth. Her eyes went wide with shock.

"Is that the best you can do?" asked Ruby, sounding...disappointed.

Salem bared her teeth in a furious grimace. Then, with a shriek of pure rage, she charged forward, raising her hands over her head. Her fingers closed around the handle of a massive sword, essentially a gigantic copy of the ones she'd wielded earlier, which she brought down in a mighty swing. This time, Ruby made no effort to avoid the attack, angling her body and raising her right hand.

Salem's blade came to a sudden halt, caught between the thumb and forefinger of Ruby's right hand. There was a rush of air, a cloud of dust billowing away from Ruby in a ring, the shockwave of Salem's swing still blowing past her. However, aside from that, it was as though Salem had been trying to kill her with a feather-duster.

"Kyo-nii's sword was heavier than this," Ruby mused aloud.

"How...?" gasped Salem, unable to believe what was happening right in front of her.

In truth, catching a sword like this was a more complicated feat than it seemed. There was much more than a precisely-timed grabbing of the flat of the descending blade. Ruby had also Projected her Aura from between her fingers, timing it just right to counter the momentum of Salem's swing, allowing her to bring the sword to a halt before her fingers had actually closed upon it. The timing for such a precise maneuver was only possible because Ruby had learned Salem's rhythm.

However, she'd also meant what she'd said. Even if she'd learned his rhythm, there was no way Ruby could have caught Kyo's sword the way she had Salem's.

"I thought you said you'd mastered the sword," commented Ruby dryly, looking up at Salem with an expression that was almost...pitying.

"You..." snarled Salem.

Red veins climbed up the handle of the woman's sword, then extended out into the blade, branching to stretch across its width, even as they climbed all the way up to the blade's tip. That red light intensified, then the sword Ruby was holding fast with her hand exploded right in her face, the red light from those veins shattering the sword into razor-edged shrapnel, which blasted Ruby and the ground where she was standing, throwing up another cloud of dust.

But Ruby reappeared behind Salem, showing no signs of having even been touched by the attack. Salem turned to face her, another sword forming in her right hand. However, it went flying off to the side, along with the hand that had been holding it, and a good bit of the arm that hand had been attached to, severed by a deft slice from Ruby's own blade. With a shriek of rage, Salem continued her turn, thrusting out with her left palm, and blasting Ruby with another torrent of red and black magic. However, Ruby easily dodged to the side, appearing a short distance away.

A forest of black arms erupted from the ground around Salem's feet, each one capped with a white-nailed hand, each hand gripping another blade of black glass. They swarmed at Ruby from all directions, swinging their weapons furiously. However, Ruby remained in place, Akaibara becoming a flickering blur, along with the arm that wielded it, Ruby batting the swords away with a casual ease that was utterly infuriating to Salem.

"This isn't mastery," chided Ruby in a disappointed voice.

Then she stepped forward, shooting past the outstretched arms, and the blades they wielded, sweeping her sword through a single, powerful swing. Akaibara cut through all the attacking arms in a single blow. Now Salem herself charged, bearing down on Ruby with all the force of an onrushing train. A new sword appeared in her right hand, and Salem swung it straight at Ruby's head.

Yet again, Ruby blocked the attack effortlessly. Once again, Salem's sword shattered on contact with Ruby's. Then Ruby riposted with a lightning-fast slash of her own. Salem was launched backwards, flying through the air, her body separating at the torso.

"Just because you can swing a sword doesn't mean you've mastered it!" shouted Ruby, charging after Salem, who was already putting her body back together.

Over the course of their fight, it had become apparent to Ruby that, despite what Salem had been boasting earlier, she was no master of the sword. There was so much more to mastering the sword than simply knowing how to swing it. That was why she and Pyrrha had spent so much time on having Jaune focus on only the most basic of techniques for his attacks. There was far more behind wielding the sword than mere arm-strength. Technique, both in the form of muscle-control and Aura-control, could lend so much more to the swing of a sword than a person's arms alone could. Even if Salem's strength was truly incredible, that didn't change the fact that she'd never truly learned to apply it to the Way of the Sword. Because of that, her swordsmanship was inferior to Kyo's, inferior to Ruby's, and even inferior to Jaune's.

There was something else that Ruby had noticed as well. When she'd used her Silver Eyes to petrify and destroy Salem's Grimm-sword, Salem had armed herself with weaker swords, ones that resembled the blades that Cinder had wielded, when Ruby had been fighting her. It seemed that Salem had only prepared one of those Grimm. Now that that one had been destroyed, she could only replace it with inferior blades produced purely through her magic. In comparison to the Grimm-sword, those blades couldn't hold up to the power of Ruby, as she was now, and Akaibara.

Skidding to a stop, Salem glared at the incoming Ruby. It seemed that, in her fury, she was going to abandon swordsmanship entirely, instead choosing to fall back on her previous tactics of relying on conjured Grimm-parts and the raw power of her magic. A wide sweep of her hand conjured a series of explosions that appeared to engulf Ruby. However, a red streak shot out from the clouds of smoke and dust raised by those explosions, Ruby splitting her sword again, and attacking with a flurry of slashes. Salem shrieked in pain and rage as those blades bit into her flesh over and over again.

Lifting her right hand, she held it out between her and Ruby. A swirling vortex of black spiraled out from the center of the palm, black streams extending out into tentacles, which ended in clawed hands, which reached for Ruby, trying to trap her from a variety of directions. However, Ruby easily weaved and dodged between them, her swords cutting them to pieces, before she closed in again.

Bara and Ibara were lined with crackling sheathes of lightning. When Ruby closed with Salem, she abruptly thrust, stabbing Bara into Salem's chest, just between the swell of her breasts, while the other she thrust directly into Salem's abdomen. Salem was launched backwards again. Bara and Ibara remained in Ruby's hands. However, the lightning remained in Salem, sticking out of her torso, as though Ruby had imbedded a pair of physical blades within her. Right as Salem came to a stop, those blades of lightning exploded with overlapping claps of thunder, completely obliterating Salem's upper body.

"Got her good that time," mused Qrow, smirking at the sight of Salem's body, now nothing more than a waist and a pair of legs, smoke streaming up from where her top portion used to be.

"But...what's the point of it?" asked Ren.

His question was easy to understand, as black mist boiled out from Salem's lower body, quickly reforming her top-half, Salem's face fixed in an angry scowl.

"Whatever Ruby does to her, it just doesn't stick," added Nora.

"No matter how many times Ruby manages to kill Salem, Salem will keep coming back," muttered Weiss unhappily.

"While Salem will only have to kill Ruby once," added Pyrrha.

"How on earth can Ruby end this?" wondered Yang.

Jaune watched, his eyes narrowing. He remembered their conversation with Kyo, where he and Ruby had learned about god-slaying techniques. According to Kyo, it should have been possible. However, god-slaying techniques were the highest order of Mibu arts. Did Ruby manage to learn one? And, even if she had, the fact remained that Salem had consumed Jester, whom even Kyo had admitted was immune to god-slaying techniques. Did that mean that Salem was now immune to them as well?

Unfortunately, the ultimate, and unpleasant, truth of the matter was that they had no idea what the final outcome of this fight would be. However, the longer it went on, the worse it would get for Ruby. She couldn't keep up this kind of fighting forever. Sooner or later, Salem's immortality would tell against Ruby's stamina, and she'd be faced with defeat.

Still, Jaune found himself believing in Ruby. If there was anyone who was capable of taking this impossible situation and turning it around, it would be her.

"Haven't you had enough?" wondered Salem, staring down Ruby after recovering from her latest "death".

Ruby merely stared back, her expression resolute.

"No matter how hard you try, no matter how much strength you bring to bear on the task, you cannot win," said Salem. "I cannot be stopped. I cannot be slain. I cannot be defeated. I am...inevitable."

"You're stubborn, that's for sure," countered Ruby, smirking.

Salem growled. "You lowly...filthy...insect!"

The ground between Salem and Ruby erupted. Dirt flew everywhere as black tentacle-arms lashed out at Ruby like whips. She vanished from where she'd been standing right as they were about to strike her.

"You are nothing but a mote of dust to my eye!" declared Salem imperiously, sweeping her left hand in a downward motion. "You cannot win against a god!"

Up above, a series of sinister red sigils formed in the air. They flashed, exploding in a shower of Nevermore feathers that fell upon Ruby in a lethal rain. Giant, needle-tipped ribs shot forth from the earth, seeking to impale her. Snapping, tooth-lined maws appeared out of thin-air. Black and red explosions appeared out of nowhere. Columns of fire erupted up from below. It seemed there was nowhere for Ruby to escape from the onslaught of magical attacks that Salem had unleashed.

Yet nothing seemed to hit her. Ruby was obscured from view by the countless attacks, as might be expected. Despite that though, when she came into view, she was always closer than before, flickering in and out of sight, weaving through the safe spaces in the rain of attacks that Salem had launched, always seeming to know where to go next to avoid getting hit, all while continuing to maneuver closer and closer with each passing second.

"You're not a god."

Salem grunted, her attacks stopping. Right as Ruby's voice reached her ears, Bara and Ibara pierced her chest again. Ruby was directly in front of her, seemingly unscathed from all the attacks Salem had launched. Faint wisps of smoke trailed from the edges of her cloak. But that was the extent of anything resembling damage that Ruby had apparently suffered.

"You're just an old woman throwing a child's tantrum," continued Ruby.

"Insolent brat!" snarled Salem.

Ruby vanished, right as the ground where she'd been standing caved in, the gravity suddenly increasing hundreds of times over.

"You can't kill me!" Salem shouted, her Aura exploding outward, black and sickly-red swirling together in an angry maelstrom.

Ruby reappeared, only to vanish again as the ground once again imploded. Several times over, she was forced to dodge as Salem's gravity crushed the space where she'd been standing, Salem's attacks changing the shape of the landscape, even as they chased the darting, evasive Ruby.

"I will show you what it means to face a god," snarled Salem, the power of her Aura increasing by an order of magnitude.

The white of Salem's skin seemed to darken, almost as though her entire body was thrown into shadow. The source of that shadow was the sinister light shining from her eyes. It was a deadly, angry red. The color of her irises had intensified, leading Ruby to realize that they weren't the same shade of red that Salem had been sporting before. They were brighter, deeper, more vivid. What was more, the irises had expanded outwards, completely encompassing the sclerae, while her pupils had shrunk down to pinpricks. Those irises blazed like a pair of crimson suns.

Raising her right hand, Salem held it with the palm facing upwards, up over her head. The space above it warped, seeming to be sucked inward, a sphere of pure-black forming. Then, with a howl of fury, Salem unleashed it, hurling the orb at Ruby. It expanded as soon as it left her hand, crushing everything in its path, flying straight for the girl.

"What's going on?" gasped Pyrrha, unable to wrench her eyes away from the fight.

"It's like nothing I've ever seen," declared Weiss.

"It's like she's tapped into some even greater power," observed Jaune.

Behind RYNB, JNPR, and CPPR; Natsuki and Miyu were both tending to Oscar, though Natsuki was mostly cradling Oscar's head, while Miyu inspected him with her Aura. Miyu was confused, mainly because there wasn't anything wrong with Oscar. Well…there was something…but she couldn't quite call it "wrong".

Looking up from Oscar, Natsuki had stolen the occasional glance to see how the fight was progressing. Now her jaw was hanging slack as she saw the transformation that Salem had undergone. "Those are…"

Her mind flashed back to her and Amber's battle against Raven. She remembered that Raven's eyes had undergone an identical transformation.

"What is it?" asked Setsuna, crouching beside her.

Natsuki swallowed nervously. "Sasame-sama told me about it," she said. "After Amber-san and I fought Raven-san, I got the chance to ask Sasame-sama about what happened…"

"Raven-san's eyes…?" Sasame directed a confused look at Natsuki.

Natsuki nodded, before relating how Raven's eyes had looked like Kyo's at first, before undergoing that strange transformation.

Sasame was silent, after listening to the story. "I see…to think that those existed outside the Mibu."

"What are you talking about?" asked Natsuki.

Sasame gave Natsuki a serious look. "Natsu-chan, I want you to understand. What I'm about to tell you is a very important secret, one that is easily on the same level as your secret of being a Maiden. No, I'd say that this is an even greater secret."

Natsuki's throat bobbed silently.

"This is a secret known only to a tiny few," said Sasame. "Were I not basically Kyo's sister, I would have never learned this myself. Not even the Goyosei know of this. In fact, not even the Taishiro, save for Sora-sama, are aware of this."

"I-is it okay to tell me?" wondered Natsuki.

"Since you have seen it yourself, you deserve to know," said Sasame. "You are aware of the trait of Kyo's family line, yes?"

"The Crimson Eyes," said Natsuki, nodding. "That's because he was one of the True Mibu that Jinn-san told everyone about."

Sasame nodded. "However, the Crimson Eyes can, under certain conditions, appear outside the line of the Royal Family. For example, Yang-chan and her mother, whom you've fought, both carry this trait themselves. Raven-san seems to be an exception, but the manifestation of the Crimson Eyes is generally temporary. However, there is another level to their manifestation.

"When one who possesses the Crimson Eyes undergoes the kind of transformation you describe, they are known as the True Crimson Eyes. That is because those eyes are the hallmark of the True Mibu. A manifestation of their godly power. One who possesses the Crimson Eyes can awaken their untapped potential, by unlocking the Crimson Eyes. One who possesses the True Crimson Eyes can unleash power beyond even that.

"It was believed that no one outside the Royal Line possessed such capability. But it appears that we were mistaken in that respect."

Natsuki shivered. "If it's really as strong as you say, then…"

"Yes, you and Amber-chan came very close to death," said Sasame gravely. "You are fortunate that Raven-san probably did not understand the full measure of her power. Had she learned to utilize it for anything beyond mere brute force, we would not be having this conversation."

"R-right," said Natsuki nervously.

Sasame's face relaxed and she smiled. "Of course, the fact that you and Amber-chan won that fight makes it all the more impressive. I'm so very proud of you, Natsu-chan. There's no need to worry though. Now that Raven-san is dead, it's unlikely that you will ever need to face such a threat ever again."

"But Salem's not one of the Mibu," protested Setsuna, staring at the woman in question. "She was one of the second humans, the ones created by those gods, right?"

Miyu looked up and nodded. "That would be correct," she agreed.

Natsuki frowned. "But Jester is a Mibu. And Salem said she consumed Jester."

"So those eyes are from Jester," gasped Setsuna.

"An Original Crimson Cross Knight…" whispered Natsuki. "…Just what are they?"

Ruby sought to avoid the incredible weight of the gravity orb that Salem had launched at her. However, even as she tried to dodge, she felt her footing shift. Ruby's eyes widened as she realized that she was being drawn towards the incoming projectile. It would pull her into itself, then crush her, just like it was crushing everything in its path.

Desperately, Ruby brought her swords together, bracing herself as she held up Akaibara, positioning it between herself and the incoming attack. Channeling her Aura into the sword, she sought to overcome the phenomenon Salem had invoked with a phenomenon of her own. For all that it was a wave of pure gravity, it was also a Manifestation of Salem's Aura, which meant that Aura could be used against it. Akaibara rang like a bell, shedding red light in waves.

Salem's attack slammed against Akaibara's blade, black vying against red. Ruby grit her teeth, straining with all her strength. This kind of brute-force defense wasn't her speciality But she was left with few other options. She poured as much Aura as she could spare, vying with all her strength to hold the attack at bay. However, with a cry of surprise and pain, Ruby felt herself slammed back, feeling as though she'd been struck by a runaway Goliath. Her body was slammed against the ground, and she felt as though she was being stepped on by the world's largest foot.

Then it was over. Ruby's defense had broken enough of the force of Salem's attack that she'd only been blown away by the shockwave caused by its unraveling. Getting to her feet, Ruby managed to lever herself up by planting the tip of her sword and leaning against it. She was shaken and battered. This was the hardest hit she'd taken since the fight had begun, and she'd used a dangerous amount of Aura just to get this far.

Worse, she could tell that Salem wasn't done. Salem now brought the palms of her hands together, before pulling them apart. Between them, a sphere of even darker, more intense, black, if such a thing was possible, began to form. It started out the size of a marble, but quickly swelled to the width of a baseball. Even from this distance, Ruby could feel the intense pull being exerted by the orb, so much smaller than the one Salem had produced before.

The sheer power emanating from Salem's attack told Ruby everything she needed to know. There was no hope of defending against that level of power. If she tried to take it head-on, as she had the last attack, there would be no surviving it. However, escaping it was going to be a tall order. Already, Ruby could feel the sensation of being drawn towards the orb in Salem's hands. The gravity would pull her in towards it, rendering any attempt to escape the reach of Salem's attack into a pointless effort.

Abruptly, Ruby's mind was catapulted back to the previous night, and her fight against Adam. She remembered the sensation, when Adam had fully charged his Semblance, when she found herself facing down what could only be her imminent death. Escape and defense were impossible. Every route was closed, every effort useless. Just as before, Ruby felt the onset of her death as an unavoidable certainty.

And again, her mind went completely blank, every emotion voiding her entirely. Ruby was left feeling empty, staring yet again up at the moon. Though it wasn't night yet, it was still there, hanging in the sky. The same feelings that had spurred her into action back then returned in force. This was the same situation. She'd been driven into the same corner.

It was clear that Salem had given up on taking her alive. Ruby still wasn't sure what Salem actually wanted her for. Whatever use Salem had for the Silver Eyes didn't really matter anymore though. It was clear that Salem, in her rage, had instead decided to destroy Ruby completely.

Yes, Ruby was back here once again. This was the scenario she'd faced repeatedly throughout her life. She'd first experienced it against the bandit she'd killed, back when she was nine. She'd faced it in her fights against the assassins who'd come after her repeatedly. She'd faced it against Vernal. She'd faced it against Adam, at the docks and in that construction site. She'd faced it against Morgan and her pirates. She'd faced it against Cinder. She'd faced it against Faolan Hargrave. She'd faced it against Tyrian. She'd faced it against Adam again.

So many times, Ruby had come face to face with the possibility of her own death. More than that, she'd come to face the realization of what lay beyond that. If she perished, it would pave the way for the one who'd killed her to go on to threaten, harm, and kill the people she cared about. Failure meant death, not just for her, but for the people she loved, people she knew, people she'd never met. So many lives rode upon the outcome of this fight that Ruby instinctively knew that failure was not an option.

She was fighting to protect them. She couldn't protect anyone if she died here.

Once again, Ruby raised her sword upwards. Akaibara's tip pointed almost straight up, Ruby raising the blade over her head. Up above, the clouds swirled, forming an eye within the building storm, an eye that was perfectly centered upon the moon above. Ruby's irises began to shine, silver motes of light streaming out of them, drifting upwards to merge with the clouds above, dying them a faint silver color. The sky seemed to darken, day temporarily transitioning to night, the moon glowing brighter. A humming sensation built in the air around her. A faint wind made her ragged cloak flutter.

Salem watched her. Her expression was more composed, but those Crimson Eyes of hers shone with pure, unadulterated malice. The orb hovering between her hands was practically cracking with power, barely restrained by the force of Salem's will. Even then, it was clear that, from the way her hands and arms were straining, that she was barely keeping it in check.

"Die," was all that she said. A second later, Salem swept her hands out to her sides in a grand gesture, unleashing the power she'd been building up.

It was a wave of the purest black, sweeping across the land, pulling everything in, crushing it, erasing it. Rocks, stones, and dirt were pulled out from the ground, before the ground itself was swallowed up. There was no seeing what lay behind, because the wave of darkness spread out to either side, completely cutting off Ruby's line of sight. It bore down on her like the end of the world itself.

Yet Ruby didn't seem bothered by it. She stood firm, neither trying to dodge nor preparing to block, as Salem's attack bore down on her. She remained in place, sword raised overhead. Akaibara began to ring loudly, its blade shining a bright, pure red. Up above, the clouds had been dyed a faint silver hue, the moon's light descending in a beam that illuminated Ruby like a spotlight.

A crack of thunder broke through the roar of Salem's attack. Ruby abruptly shot forward, rushing straight for the oncoming wave of gravity. Red wind swirled inwards, converging around the blade of her sword, as bolts of lightning played through the clouds above. Then, right as she was about to be swallowed by Salem's attack, Ruby brought the sword down.

"Tsukigiri!"

In conjunction with her swing, a single bolt of pure silver descended down from above, striking the tip of her sword right as it came down.

The roar of Salem's overwhelmingly powerful attack vanished in an instant. The black waves of condensed gravity disappeared, almost as though they'd been erased from existence. Behind that attack, Ruby had continued forward, rushing across the pulverized ground, easily reaching Salem herself. Now Ruby stood before Salem, the tip of her sword pointing to the ground between Salem's feet. Salem's body was bisected from top to bottom by a silver line.

"I-…Im-…Impossible…" Salem's voice was hoarse, ragged, as though she was coming down with a bad cold. "You cannot…"

"I can," said Ruby. "It's over, Salem." For you, at least.

"You…a-are…a fool," Salem forced out. "I…I am…immortal. Eternal life…bestowed by the God of Light…himself…cannot be…overcome."

"Don't be so sure," said Ruby, lifting her eyes to meet Salem's, and giving her a grim smile.

Salem's lips pulled back, baring her teeth. She raised up her right hand, preparing to smite the arrogant girl before her. However, the movement elicited a cracking sound from her body. The clothes and skin to either side of the cut Ruby had made upon her began to take on a gray sheen, accompanied by a cracking sound. It was as though her body was slowly, but surely, turning to stone.

"I-Impossible…" Salem said again, her lips making cracking noises, even as they formed the words.

The graying of her body spread all the way outwards, all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her entire body, clothes and all, had petrified. Then the cracking sounds resumed. The cracks began to spread across the stone surface. Gradually, they spread all the way across her body. Then, with a breaking sound, thin pieces of stone flaked away, starting one at a time, at first, before they abruptly exploded off Salem's body all at once.

Gone was the white skin and purple veins, as were the black sclerae of her eyes. Before Ruby was Salem as she'd been, back during the age of the gods, before she had leapt into the Pools of the Grimm. Fair skin and flowing, blonde hair marked her as a figure of beauty, and even her previously black clothes had been dyed a pristine white. The only color that remained from her previous form could be found in her irises, which were still a vivid crimson, even if they were no longer taking the form of the True Crimson Eyes.

Salem looked down at herself, taking in the changes that had come over her, her eyes wide with shock. "You…"

"This is what you wanted me for?" wondered Ruby, taking in Salem's transformation.

Salem fixed her eyes upon Ruby. Her expression twisted into something wrathful. Her appearance was more fair, but it was clear that Salem's heart had been blackened in ways that not even Ruby could purify. "Yes," she said. "As Jester once remarked, so long as I was tainted by the God of Darkness's essence, I would not be capable of creating the new world that I sought. To that end, I needed someone with the Silver Eyes to purify me of the Grimm essence that had infused me. And now…I shall be more than capable of remaking this world in my image."

"I don't think so," said Ruby, turning and beginning to walk away.

"You are a fool," growled Salem. "Now that I no longer have a use for you, I am free to punish your impudence with death!"

Salem raised her right hand, opening the palm towards Ruby. A shimmering orb of violet energy began to form, more energy in different colors gathering in the air around her. They filled the air with a violent tension, crackling energy building towards a peak, threatening to explode and consume Ruby completely.

Then it all stopped.

The magic that Salem had been calling upon, been building towards using, vanished. Like the flames of candles, they were snuffed out all at once.

"What?" Salem stared at her hand in incomprehension, unable to understand why her power had suddenly vanished.

Grunting, Salem thrust her palm at Ruby again. This time, only a few errant sparks answered her call. With another grunt, Salem tried yet again…only to be met with no response this time.

"Why…?" wondered Salem, examining her hand in confusion.

"Why…? Because you're dying."

Salem flinched at the unexpected voice within her head, a voice that she knew all too well. "How…?"

"I told you, didn't I? I'm too much for you to stomach, dear girl. This isn't the first time I've been consumed, after all. My own creator tried it, and it failed to end me. Did you think you would have a better chance?"

"No…" whispered Salem, before the other part of what the voice had whispered in her ear dawned on her. "I…I can't…die…I'm immortal."

"And most people wouldn't have a chance of challenging that. Just trying to kill your flesh would do nothing. You would simply return, again and again. But the Rose…she didn't attack your flesh with that blow. She attacked the Root of your existence itself. She severed the very tie that holds you to this world.

"That's how god-slaying techniques work, after all. They transcend inflicting damage against flesh and blood, and act upon the very Root of their target. With that power, even true gods, like the Pretender brothers, can be laid low.

"Do you understand now? You received your immortality from a god. But that girl has reached the stage where she can slay a god. If she can kill a god, then surely she can also kill one that a god has rendered otherwise un-killable."

Salem examined her hand again…and found that it was beginning to break apart. Cracks spread across her skin, which began to flake away, very much like the stone that had encased her before. However, this time, the phenomenon was more than skin-deep. Her fingers started first, crumbling away and dispersing in the wind. The phenomenon spread down her arms, even as her legs began to disappear from beneath her.

In a matter of seconds…Salem was nothing more than dust in the wind…leaving behind no trace that she had been there at all.

Ruby's friends stared at her in awe. Just the previous evening, they had learned about Salem's immortality, about the supposed impossibility of killing her. They had learned that Ozpin was leading them in a war that could not be won, could not be ended. And yet…with a single stroke of her sword, Ruby had changed all that.

Ruby walked towards them, her ragged cloak billowing out behind her. As she did, she slid Akaibara into its sheath. She was battered and bruised, but none the worse for wear, it seemed. However, as she walked, the holes in her cloak seemed to widen, until it seemed like nothing more than tattered scraps of cloth trailing behind her. Ruby had nearly reached the group when her legs gave out, and she began to fall forward.

Jaune was there, catching her, careful not to let her face slam into his breastplate. Holding her up, he pulled her into a tight hug. "That was incredible," he whispered, kissing the top of her head, as Ruby rested her face against his chest.

"YOU DID IT!" exclaimed Yang, wrapping both Ruby and Jaune in a hug.

Even as she and Jaune groaned in Yang's grip, Ruby found herself wryly noting that this was essentially the first time that Yang had hugged Jaune too.

"Heck of a fight there, kiddo," Qrow congratulated her, reaching past Yang and Jaune to ruffle Ruby's hair.

The rest of her friends gathered round to throw in their support. Only Team MNPS hung back, Natsuki still resting Oscar's head on her legs, while Miyu and Setsuna stood by.

Finally, though she would have liked to spend another hour or so relaxing in in Jaune's arms, Ruby began to pull away. As she did, she staggered, but turned away from her friends…and back towards where Salem had passed from the world.

"Ruby…?" asked Weiss warily.

"What's going on?" asked Pyrrha.

"It's not over," said Ruby tiredly.

As if in response to her words, the quality of the air around them suddenly changed. No one could pin down a cause, but their mouths had all suddenly gone dry, their throats tight. Swallowing became painful. Jaws clenched, gritting teeth together, until the muscles all the way down to their necks began to ache. Limbs began to tremble.

"He's coming," said Ruby simply, stepping forward again, only to sway drunkenly as her previous fatigue threatened to overcome her.

In front of her, at the very spot of ground where Salem had disappeared, the earth suddenly shifted upwards. A hand erupted out from the dirt, stretching up towards the heavens. A second hand and arm joined it. Then the two arms bent, hands planting against the ground and pushing. The dirt gave way as a familiar figure levered himself up out of the ground and into the open air once more. Rising up, the figure of Jester, wearing the strange new outfit he'd adopted, ever since his fight with Kyo, threw his head to the sky.

"I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!" he howled dramatically…before pausing and ducking his head in disappointment. "Dammit."

"I figured that wouldn't be enough for you," said Ruby tiredly.

Jester turned, grinning at her. "Nope," he agreed. "Sorry, kiddo. You were a step short, I'm afraid. It was enough for Salem, but not for me."

Ruby gave him a weary smile. "A step short, huh…? I'm glad."

"Hmm…?" Jester tilted his head, giving her a confused look.

Ruby's smile widened. "That means I'm just a step away."

Abruptly, Jester's lips pulled back in a much wider grin, a savage grin, an eager grin. "That's the spirit!" he exclaimed.

Behind Ruby, her friends looked on. Jaune shivered nervously, then flinched as he heard the faint patter of something hitting the ground. Looking down, he saw small specks of darkened earth at his feet…like drops of water had fallen. With similar sounds, more droplets began to land right beside them, almost as though there was a minuscule rainstorm happening right where he was standing. But there was no sign of rain, despite the clouds that had been swirling above Ruby before. Feeling uneasy, Jaune reached up and ran his fingers over his breastplate, sweeping them across the spot where Ruby had been resting her head a moment ago. The metal was slick to the touch. When Jaune pulled his fingers away, he found them covered with sweat…Ruby's sweat.

She's worked so hard to get here, he thought, his eyes going wide, before darting to take in the condition of her cloak, which was nothing more than ribbons of red fabric, trailing behind her. But she can't keep this up. She doesn't have a chance, if she winds up in a fight like the last one.

It was obvious to Jaune, and a realization that was beginning to dawn upon the others. Ruby was clearly on her last legs. But Jester looked as fresh as a daisy, not seeming have lost any of the energy he had, even though Salem had presumably been drawing upon it during her fight with Ruby.

If they didn't do something soon…there was no hope that Ruby could win.