Chapter 238: Ultimate Strike

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the attractive bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the present…err learn.

Ultimate Strike

I got here again to my physique with a crash, the facility of Ohr Ein Sof leaping from my fingers in a rush of annihilating mild. I noticed it rush over Gilgamesh’s physique, a skinny line piercing via the middle of his chest and the portal therein, earlier than the blast expanded. It misplaced all semblance of form as a beam because it expanded, rising right into a wave of sunshine that might have dwarfed mountains and devoured cities. It blotted out the world in entrance of me as if somebody had taken an eraser to a whiteboard, clearing it of every little thing in sight.

When it pale, every little thing in entrance of me was gone as if reduce away by a surgeon’s knifeand so have been Malkuth and Gilgamesh.

Slowly, I let me hand drop to my aspect, the stress that had constructed up inside me over the course of the battle easing as I relaxed, receiving what was maybe the very best affirmation I might ask for.

Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one! Your stage has elevated by one!

I might received.

I needed to smile, snigger, cheer, and celebratebut I did not. I could not muster up the desire to, in the long run, could not calm down fairly that a lot. As a result of although issues had gone effectively, although they’d gone higher than I might have anticipated or hopedthat had been shut. Too shut for even me to be snug with, to not really feel just a bit drained and apprehensive. It wasn’t the battle, which had gone higher than anticipated, all issues thought of, however what had come after; the negotiation between Malkuth and I. If I might been unsuitable, if I might made a mistake in my assumptionseveryone I cherished can be lifeless proper now, or within the strategy of getting there.

On a stage, I might identified it might come to thisI knew higher than to give attention to an occasion to the exclusion of what got here after. Defeating Gilgamesh and Malkuth was essential to get to the pc and no matter laid inside it, however even that was nearly secondary to my actual aim.

Shopping for time.

I had no different alternative, when it got here proper right down to it. I might wanted to discover a strategy to forge a short lived armistice with Malkuth, as a result of I might identified full effectively that if I let him out as I used to be, if I confronted him at my present stage of powerI’d lose. With Metatron lively, it was attainable I might have made it a combating defeat, however I might had no delusions about how that battle would have endedI would have died, adopted by everybody I knew and cherished.

And I could not enable that, not after I may need been capable of cease it. However I might additionally identified that the second I proved myself sturdy sufficient to do no matter it was Malkuth supposed, he’d attempt to power my handto make me give him his freedom. I knew how far he might go to do it, too, and so there’d solely been one strategy to go about doing it; placing us in a state of affairs the place neither of us might win, even when it meant playing my life, with all of our lives.

But when I might been mistaken about him, if he had been prepared to attend, if I might been unsuitable

I hadn’t been I reminded myself. It was okay. I might purchased them, all of us, a little bit of time.

How a lot timethat I wasn’t positive of. I wasn’t silly sufficient to consider that Malkuth was going to cease being an assholesure, I might bend area and time to my whim, however I knew to maintain my targets life like. He would not have agreed to my plan until he’d had one thing in thoughts as effectively, I simply wasn’t utterly positive what. Was he relying on Cinder’s plan? Loss of life? Or one thing else? How did any of these play into getting one over on me and making me obey?

There was no manner of realizing yetand relying on what he was scheming, I may not see the knife coming till it was too late.

That was one of many downsides to this little association of oursneither of us needed to obey the foundations; we simply needed the others to obey them and did not wish to endure the results of breaking them ourselves. We might each be making an attempt to push the boundaries of the settlement, seeing which guidelines we might bend and which we might break. The one drawback was that Malkuth was higher outfitted to skirt the sides of it than I used to be. His menace was that he’d begin wiping nations off the map if I did something, whereas mine was that I might die combating earlier than letting him out. Sadly, he might do fairly a bit with out ending civilization, whereas I wasn’t going to make him give a shit by doing something lower than dying. The deal had been in his favor in that regard at the least.

However then, it needed to be. If he hadn’t been capable of see some benefit to it, he would not have accepted the dealand I stood to revenue in different methods in addition to. It was unlucky and fewer than ultimate, however that was compromise, I suppose; everybody was a bit of bit sad. However I used to be happier then I might have been watching everybody die and nonetheless lengthy I had, I would just need to profit from it.

I needed to profit from what I might been given, by each life and my previous self. Use this time to determine a strategy to end what I began.

It was nearly humorous, actually. I could not go any additional with out the data inside the computerand to achieve that data, I might had no alternative however consider a strategy to survive only a bit longer. That was my life, I suppose.

For a second, every little thing was silent, muted by the easy truth that almost every little thing able to making noise was gone. It was solely after a number of seconds handed and she or he noticed me calm down that Raven spoke.

“Jian,” She mentioned. “Is it over?”

“Virtually,” I mentioned, opening my eyes once more. “We nonetheless need to get what we got here for.”

Raven nodded as soon as, expression tight and hand nonetheless hovering by her sword; she was nonetheless anticipating a lure, which appeared smart. I simply wasn’t positive if it might be a bodily lure.

Both manner, we might simply need to cope with it.

Earlier than that, howeveras the objects appeared earlier than me, I snatched them up with my Psychokinesis and held them within the air earlier than me. The exorbitant sum of money, I easy saved away, having no actual use for it, however the othersa masks, a go well with of armor, and a type of trange metallic plates just like the one I might gotten from my father.

You will have obtained the merchandise ‘Enkidu.’

You will have obtained the merchandise ‘Utnapishtim.’

You will have obtained the ability e-book ‘Shutur Eli Sharri.’

I added them to my numerous collections as effectively and held out a hand to Raven, who took it.

Then, I gathered the facility of Metatron round myself and slipped via the dimensional barrier that but remained untouched, Trespassing with a easy act of willand we entered the traditional metropolis that had been left behind. In a manner, it felt like venturing into the unknown, however in one other

It was like coming residence.

And with a sensation like the ultimate keystroke on a pc, I felt a lock give manner and a doorway openand with a sensation like breaking glass, time stopped.

“Hey,” A voice mentioned. “You have to be me, then.”

I might have blinked as soon as, had my physique not been halted as effectively. I attempted to hone in on the supply, however discovered that my senses weren’t working as they have been speculated to, failing to disclose something out of the ordinarybut then I mentally clicked my tongue, understanding what was taking place. Slowly, fastidiously, I stood up from my very own physique, Projecting myself however in another way, letting Metatron coloration the outcomes. My spirit left my physique behind and I closed my eyes for a second earlier than turning round and opening them.

As I did, I noticed a determine who did not seem to any of my different senses, as a result of he existed solely in mynot fairly my thoughts, as such, however inside the system I used to be now part of. He had no bodily presence, no spirit, past what I created with a self-imposed phantasm, however as I crafted the Delusion it slipped from my maintain in an odd manner and the determine started to maneuver in his personal proper. He was about my peak, maybe a bit of shorter, with hair someplace between auburn and blonde and evenly tanned pores and skin. We did not look a lot alike build-wise, both; I used to be taller and constructed stronger, whereas he was morehonestly, the one phrase I might actually use was statuesque. He regarded like an actor to my warrior, which in all probability wasn’t a coincidence given our natures, and I puzzled absently exactly how a lot was outlined by our powers. It will need to have been at the least a couple of issues, seeing as our eyes have been the identical coloration.

Precisely the identical coloration.

“Hey,” I greeted, smiling slowly. “That will be me, sure. Ought to we hassle with introductions seeing as we’re the identical individual or simply skip the formalities?”

“I would not take into account it a hassle,” He mentioned. “In contrast to you, my data of the state of affairs is considerably restricted. It is somewhat troublesome to organize for one thing to date in superior. By now, you little question know me as Keter, seeing as you could have already remembered our true title, and it is hopefully protected to imagine you are my reincarnation, until I failed and made some dramatic oversight. Could I ask to your title, then?”

“Jaune Arc,” I mentioned. “It is a pleasure to satisfy you, Keter. I assume you are a document of some form? Not fairly an AI, however”

“Not fairly an individual,” He completed, smiling. “Sure. There was solely a lot I might do on quick discover, particularly with a lot uncertainty concerned, so I borrowed this trick. To make issues easy, you could possibly take into account me an interactive daydream of types; I contained what I might inside this place, keyed it to elements of our soul as tightly as I might, andhere we am. I am not an impartial being, per seif something, I am only a projection of your soul upon itself, drawing from what was locked inside this.”

He tapped a foot on the platform and I imagined it making a sound.

“Attention-grabbing,” I mused. “We could not depend on our personal reminiscences, so we hid them someplace elsesomewhere Malkuth could not threat tampering with.”

“Exactly,” He agreed. “Although reminiscences may not be exactly the proper phrase. Issues of the soul do generally tend in the direction of the complicated, ours particularly. In a manner, it is extra like I locked a few of our time away. Our previous and future historical past? Our life? I apologize; I do not suppose there is a phrase in your language for it.”

“I figured a couple of issues could be misplaced in translation,” I informed myself. “Don’t fret about itwhatever the case, I am glad for this opportunity to lastly see myself. I used to be a bit apprehensive, you see; as you in all probability anticipated, I do not keep in mind a lot about my earlier lifeand I keep in mind extra of the early days than the later ones. Loss of life’s work, however you clearly suspected a lot.”

He nodded in understanding.

“It would not make sense for Malkuth to go away us with a lot, given the possibility to take issues away,” He mentioned. “It’d depart us with too many benefits, in any case, an excessive amount of data of how issues work. Returning to our full energy would nonetheless have taken time, however vastly lower than he would have appreciated. Fortunately, it appears you did not have an excessive amount of hassle making progressI hope you did not have an excessive amount of hassle on the way in which in.”

“I needed to battle Gilgamesh,” I mentioned earlier than shrugging. “And Malkuth, via him. I managed.”

“That is good to listen to,” He replied. “And Loss of life?”

I sighed, shoulders falling barely.

“Not right here, as close to as I might inform,” I answered and at that, the reminiscence regarded stunned. “Except he has some technique of hiding extraordinarily effectively that I could not counter, which could possibly be certain. I take it he was speculated to be right here?”

The picture of Keter hesitated.

“I do not know something for sure, after all,” He started, musing as a lot to himself as to me. “I wasn’t lively for any of the meantime. ButI’d suspected he can be right here.”

I nodded, having figured as a lot myself. Having seen this place now, realizing extra about it, issues did not add up. It did not make sense for Malkuth to not depart anybody inside, simply in case. It was all the time attainable, in any case, that I may need snuck in with out Gilgamesh or his cronies noticing, so it solely made sense to have somebody stand watch inside, to sound the alarm if nothing else. That was, partly, why I hadn’t tried to sneak inthe final thing I wanted was to run into one drawback, have them say a phrase, and find yourself because the meat in a Grimm sandwich.

And if it have been to be anybody, I might thought it might in all probability be Loss of life. The one who’d scrubbed me clear final timeif I have been to be taught of something untoward, one thing Malkuth hadn’t anticipated and could not deal with, it made sense to have him available to verify I did not get an opportunity to make use of it. Failing that, Loss of life appeared just about certain to be the best of the Riders and the probably to nonetheless be capable of damage the day of somebody who made it previous a small military of tremendous Grimm. It even match with the final state of issues right here, the vacancy and lack.

And but, there hadn’t been anybody ready for me. It had been suspicious as all hell from the very starting, leaving solely a small handful of choices.

The primary was that it was a trapwhich was nonetheless a risk. Loss of life could possibly be mendacity in wait, positioned someplace I could not see even with Metatron lively. That’d take some fairly critical space-time fuckery on the very minimal, however Malkuth in all probability might have managed it if he’d had an opportunity. In that case, I might count on unpleasantness as quickly as I left this dream sequence.

As a lot as I dreaded the opportunity of that occuring, although, I nearly hoped it was the casebecause the second was, if something, much more worrying, although for various causes. That Loss of life merely wasn’t right here, that one thing had satisfied it to go away its place, one thing that modified issues. However Loss of life was a Rider and will need to have had a number, and I knew of 1 one who may need served that goal. Was this the proof I might wanted to show Ozpin’s true nature? The inconsistencies, the shortage, every little thing?

Perhaps. I actually, actually hoped not, however perhaps.

If there was ever a time for me to be unsuitable, although, I might actually like for it to be now.

Both manner, thoughI’d need to cope with that as I got here to it.

“I am going to deal with Loss of life, a method or one other,” I mentioned. “For nowyou know what I am searching for.”

He checked out me for a second after which smiled, lifting an empty hand.

“It will not be what you needed,” He warned earlier than lifting the opposite as effectively. “However it might be what you want. Would you prefer to know? The explanations behind all of it andthe nature of Metatron’s Dice?”

I nodded and reached out to understand his handand the world dissolved beneath my ft.