Christy parried another energy strike from Lord Tenebris’ tuning fork sword, while Ember continued to fire several rounds at him trying to knock him off balance.
“Your attacks won’t work on me” Lord Tenebris said with a laugh. “I have been trained…..”
“Training only works if you use it correctly” Ember said as she rushed forward and engaged in close combat with Lord Tenebris. “Something that the man you killed taught me a long time ago.”
“That means nothing child” Lord Tenebris said as he stabbed his sword into the ground to create a sound blast that knocked her further backwards. “Whether one uses training correctly or not is irrelevant. What matters is what you have been trained in, what you are skilled at, and how it compares to your opponents abilities.”
“I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in a fight like this before,” Christy said as she joined Ember in the close quarters combat, “but there usually isn’t this much talking.”
“Regardless of who says what, all that matters is who is still standing at the end of the day.”
“Really?” Ember said with a smile as she landed a perfect shotgun-charged punch on Lord Tenebris’ stomach. “Hard for you to still be standing if you’re all by yourself.”
“I am….more than enough…..for the likes of you” Lord Tenebris said as he regained his breath after the last hit. He spun his weapon into battle position and rushed forward. Immediately, Christy ran forward and set herself right in the path of Lord Tenebris. Initially, he thought she had left herself completely open to an attack. As a result, he began raising his sword for an attack head on. Suddenly, Christy leapt forward and did a front flip, propelling herself up into the air with the force of her weapons firing as her hands reached the ground. Christy flew over Lord Tenebris head, dodging his sword in mid-air. Trying to react in the moment, he aimed his sword at the rising Christy, but with that opening, Ember fired several more shots towards him, resulting in Lord Tenebris having to use his sword to try and defend himself from the incoming attacks. This left him wide open for when Christy landed perfectly right behind him and struck a perfect blow on his back with both her axes. While his aura took most of the damage, it was clear that Lord Tenebris was not prepared at all for this fight.
“Not so much fun when you’re the one who’s getting surprise attacked, huh?” Ember said as she confidently pointed one of her tonfas at Lord Tenebris. There was a short silence following this. Nobody said or did anything for a few seconds, which gave Christy the chance to pull back and attack Lord Tenebris once again. But suddenly, she was knocked back by a powerful surge of energy. Black flames started to eb from Tenebris’ feet, beginning to coat himself in a powerful aura burn. Ember saw what happened in that moment and tried to react, but she wasn’t fast enough. The energy hit her and sent her flying into the nearby wall. She felt her aura slipping down to dangerous levels as she fought to get back up and keep going. Lord Tenebris was approaching her, now coated from head to toe in the black flame. A pure black aura burn. Ember didn’t know what to do. She was used to her father’s aura burns being something that was more of an aesthetic to exemplify the power or ability being amplified when facing off against opponents, not something that could really give off powerful energy waves like they did here. Ember didn’t have much time to think however, as all of a sudden, Lord Tenebris had her in a choke hold. He held her up in front of himself, Ember struggling to break free of the iron grip that Lord Tenebris had around her neck.
“Of all the names he could have chosen,” Lord Tenebris as he took his free hand and started reaching for Ember’s necklace, “why did yours become associated with that of the true Ember?”
“What are you….?” Before Ember could comprehend what was happening, Lord Tenebris ripped the necklace her father had given to her off her neck.
“This was supposed to be a gift from the true Ember. You are not worthy to even speak her name, let alone share it! Your idiot of a father let his connections to you hold him back from his true destiny! I will succeed where you father failed! I will be better than him! I won’t give in to his pathetic weakness of connections to mistakes like you!” In that moment, Ember snapped. She activated her phasing Semblance, fell out of Tenebris’ grip, pulled back her right arm, and punched Lord Tenebris so hard that he went flying across the entire room and crashed through the wall into the room over. Needless to say, this surprised Lord Tenebris immensely. He ran his hand over his mask, and felt a crack had started to develop over his right eye. Ember was not about to let up, however. She marched towards Lord Tenebris, and before he had a chance to react, started beating him senseless. There were chinks of armor flying all over the place, pieces of his mask started to crack, and it almost seemed like this would be the moment where he would die. However, before Ember could strike a blow that would have surely broken the mask of Lord Tenebris, he fired up another aura burn, this time burning white. Unlike the black burn, this one was a purely defensive burn that made Lord Tenebris impervious to Ember’s attacks. But that didn’t stop her form continually trying to break through the defense.
“Give it back!” Ember yelled as she continued to punch the flame. “It doesn’t belong to you! You have no right!” In that moment, Christy ran over and grabbed Ember, pulling her away from Lord Tenebris.
“You aren’t going to break through his defenses!” she yelled trying to pull her back. “Ozpin just called! We need to leave right now!”
“No! I’m not leaving! Not until he pays for what he did to me! To my brother! To my mom! To my father! To my family!”
“Then leave him here to die! Let him just die a death not worth mentioning! You continuing to live will be better for honoring your father!” Ember tried to break free from Christy’s grip, but to no avail. Finally, she calmed down and let Christy release her. They turned to leave, but not before Ember spat at the flame consuming Lord Tenebris.
“You’d better hope that flame can protect you from what’s about to happen” Ember said turning away to leave the chamber. “Because if you do survive, you’ll wish you had died right here instead of facing my wrath.” With that, Ember and Christy exited the chamber, the Relic of Knowledge in hand. Lord Tenebris started to get back up, but was struggling to do so. He grabbed his communicator, but found it had been destroyed in the battle. Suddenly, the entire labyrinth started shaking. He could hear explosions going off around the base. And due to the old nature of the structure, even without any explosions near him, the ground couldn’t handle the power, and everything was falling apart. The ground began to crack, the ceiling began to crumble, and the pillars started to collapse. The entire base was falling apart. But Lord Tenebris didn’t make a single sound or cry for help. He simply laid there, and let his body be covered in the white aura burn as the rubble collapsed around him.
As the Great Labyrinth came crashing down, the stealth team watched as several Order ships scrambled to try and escape the carnage. Any Order soldiers or vehicles that ran or drove past them didn’t even think twice, they simply continued to run for their lives.
“Somehow,” Brooklyn said tilting her head, “I thought this would have been a lot harder.”
“Yeah one would think that the Order would be a lot better at protecting their hidden base from people randomly attacking it” Terra said scratching her head.
“We only knew this place existed thanks to Ozpin” Christy said as she pulled out her Scroll and started typing in Ozpin’s contact information. “And they weren’t expecting us anytime soon during this war. So, this was the perfect time to attack.” As she said this, Christy called Ozpin who picked up almost right away.
“Thank goodness you’re okay” Ozpin said with a sigh. “Do you have the Relic?”
“Safe and secure” Christy said as she held it up triumphantly.
“Excellent work. Stand by, we’re ready to bring you home.”
“But there isn’t an airship nearby….” Before Christy could finish her sentence, a booming sound echoed across the desert, and a portal opened leading straight to General Ironwood’s office back in Atlas. Ozpin stood on the other side of the portal holding the Relic of Connection, having opened a gate to allow the stealth team to exit safely. They all made their way through the portal and into Ironwoods office. Once they were all through, Ozpin closed the gate and set the Relic down on Ironwood’s desk.
“I’m sure the others are going to have several questions” Ozpin said taking a sip from his coffee.
“Could I get a coat first?” Aurora said as she started shivering. “We went from the literal desert to the artic in a matter of seconds.”
“How could you go behind our backs like this Ozpin?” Miles said as he slammed his fist on a nearby table.
“I did what was necessary to ensure our victory in this conflict” Ozpin said tapping his cane on the ground. “The current generation of students at Beacon and the other….”
“I don’t care how good they are Ozpin! They’re still kids! Just because they know how to fight doesn’t mean that they should fight! They need to be kept safe and out of harms way!”
“Perhaps, but without the efforts of your children, we might not have gotten the result that we were hoping for in this venture.”
“I thought we agreed,” Yang said as she stormed over to Ozpin, “no students or underage fighters in this conflict unless absolutely necessary.”
“And I did deem this absolutely necessary Yang. If not for this attack, we could have lost all the Relics to the Order already. You should be celebrating. We have achieved a great victory over the Order today!”
“But at what cost?” Natalie said stepping up next to Ozpin. “What if today had gone differently? What if instead of everybody getting out in one piece, some of if not all of the students helping with this little incursion of yours Ozpin ended up injured or dead because of your actions?!”
“You know as well as I do Mrs. Grover, that is the nature of the game.”
“Yes, that is the game WE play” Ruby said walking forward as well. “But we are adults. They’re still kids. Let them be kids for the time being. I’d prefer they be safe and out of harms way than fighting in this war, no matter how much it helps us win.” The room fell silent and nobody said anything.
“So am I going to have to be the one to say something?” Aurora said with clear annoyance in her voice. “What about us? Do we get a say in any of this?”
“Maybe once you become official huntsmen and huntresses…..” Miles started to say to the students, but then Hera walked over and scowled at Miles.
“Like it or not, we are in the thick of war right now. And in order to survive, we need to have all hands on deck in order to fight the growing darkness. We can’t just sit around and expect everything to be better by letting people sit on the sidelines instead of helping.”
“Maybe,” Ty said folding his arms, “but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re just kids. You need more experience before you guys can take on a threat as powerful as the Order.”
“Tell me again how much experience you guys had when the Order attacked Beacon?” Gray said with sarcasm in his voice.
“Even though we won today, this won’t mean anything unless we come together and fight the common enemy as one” Ozpin said taking another sip of coffee. “We can’t do this alone. Besides, it was the strength of simple souls like yourselves that helped defeat the Order last time, so perhaps we should look to the youth once again in this conflict.” The room fell silent once again, nobody sure how to respond. Blake then spoke up and said,
“We will not tolerate this unless at the very least, the students are accompanied by two huntsmen or huntresses minimum.”
“That can be arranged. Perhaps cover their internship credit.”
“This is serious Oz” Ironwood said with a sigh.
“True, but regardless. The Order isn’t going to stay down for long. For all we know, they could already have the pieces of the puzzle needed in order to find the last two Relics. And even though having the other two in our possession is beyond helpful, we need to ensure that the Order does not only never gets their hands on the two we already have, but that they do not obtain the two that are still out there. And I’m not sure how much the Relic of Knowledge managed to keep secret from the Order, but we might have a chance if we keep moving forward. But for now, we need rest. This is our first true respite in quite some time. Everybody take a breath and prepare for a new strategy tomorrow as we get ready for what the most likely move of the Order will be after losing their main hub.”
Ember sat down on the observation deck of the main building of Atlas overlooking the sprawling landscape of the kingdom, watching the snow fall slowly over the town below. Gray sat down next to her, carrying two cups of hot tea, and placing his hand on her knee.
“You doing okay sis?” he asked with legitimate concern in his voice.
“I had him Gray. I had the monster that took our dad in a single instant, and I let him go.”
“There’s no guaranteeing he survived. Maybe he died in the explosion you pulled off with the rest of your team.”
“But what if we didn’t? He was impervious to my attacks when he had that all-white aura burn….”
“Did you say Aura burn?” Miles said as he cut in on the conversation. “Who was using an Aura burn?”
“That Tenebris guy who killed our dad” Gray said taking a sip of tea. “Ember says that it was black when exerting power, and white when in defensive form.”
“Is that even possible? Not many people have anything like an Aura burn.”
“Well my mom and my dad both had variations,” Ember said crossing her legs. “It could be possible that this is just another version of that ability.”
“Perhaps. Something seems off though” Miles said as he scratched his head.
“What seems off?” Gray asked.
“Most Semblance’s are rare and specific to the wielder. Very few people can attain a power that is so similar to other Hunters Semblances that it almost seems identical. And those that do are few and far between. The only people I knew who had aura burns were your mother and your father.”
“Doesn’t Brooklyn also have a sort of Aura burn?” Ember asked.
“Kind of” Miles said with a sigh. “But each of them are distinct. Not one of them bears resemblance to the other.”
“Well, this one did look similar, but different enough. I don’t think that this Lord Tenebris and my dad are connected in any way outside of the obvious.”
“Maybe. I just need some sleep.” Miles left, leaving Ember and Gray alone again.
“What happened to your neck?” Gray asked noticing the red marks on Ember’s neck.
“Oh, right. That Tenebris guy strangled me. But what’s worse, he took dad’s necklace away from me.”
“Did he really?”
“I’m not even really sure why he wanted it. He just saw it and decided he wanted it, so he took it from me. I tried to get it back, but there was no way I was getting through that defense.” As she looked up to the starry sky, Ember started to cry. “That was the last piece of his legacy that he had left for me. Now he’s gone. I know I need to forge my own path, but that necklace always reminded me that no matter what, there’s always a light in the darkness.” Gray sighed and placed his hand on Ember’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I miss him too.” Ember smiled and embraced her brother, both of them letting their tears fall.
“I call dibs on beating him to a bloody pulp once we finally find him” Ember said with a snicker.
“That’s assuming that there will be anything left of him once mom is through with him” Gray said as they both laughed and cried.
Lord Imperia’s airship touched down next to the wreckage. She scanned over all the different pieces of debris, trying to see if she could find what she was looking for. But then, a burst of black energy shot up from the sky, and Lord Tenebris stepped out of the rubble, his mask extremely cracked, revealing his chin and mouth.
“It’s a miracle you survived Lord Tenebris” Lord Imperia said with a smirk.
“It truly is a miracle.” Lord Tenebris said with a sick smile.
“What of the monolith?”
“Sad to say my lord, it was destroyed by the enemy. I apologize, I should have done more.”
“They played all of us Lord Tenebris. You at least delayed the inevitable which gave our troops plenty of time to evacuate and salvage as much as they could. What of the data we collected from the monolith about the Relics?”
“They were on the first evacuated ship I sent out. They will rejoin the main fleet once I send them the proper signals.”
“Very good Lord Tenebris. Who may I ask did you face that resulted in your defeat?”
“It was the professor of stealth tactics at Beacon Academy along with the one who is unfit to bear her name. I did everything I could, but I could not defeat them.”
“Perhaps you are not as powerful as you have boasted in the past Lord Tenebris” as Lord Imperia said this, Lord Tenebris clenched his fists in anger. He then grabbed Lord Imperia by the collar, and pulled her right up to his mask.
“I have so much to do before I leave this world. I will fight an army of inferior soldiers and pathetic huntsmen and huntresses just to get her back. I will not give up until I have achieved my goals. And of course, we have yet to let this world fall under the control of the entire Order.”
“Glad to see we are on the same page” Lord Imperia said with a sick smile as she removed Lord Tenebris’ hand from her collar. “You have said exactly what I wanted to hear. You may retire to your chambers Lord Tenebris.” With that, Lord Tenebris turned and started making his way to his chambers on the new lead airship of the Order. Lord Sangui walked over to Lord Imperia, completely confused.
“He’s the reason we’re in this mess!” Lord Sangui said with anger in his voice. “If we keep the likes of him here he’ll…..”
“Do nothing more than fight and die for our cause. I will admit, at first I was concerned with bringing him on board given his history, but the fact that he is willing to serve us regardless, perhaps he is truly the tool we have been waiting for. After all, I did help him discover his true desires, and unlike many others, he’s acting on them. His blind loyalty to us serves us perfectly. This is ideal for the Order’s ultimate goal” Lord Imperia said with an evil laugh.
Lord Tenebris made his way down the hallway, his fist clenched. Entering his room, he took off his broken mask and placed it on the bed. Walking over to the mirror, he pulled out Embers necklace. As the necklace spun in his hand, he said with a sick smile,
“Finally, back where it belongs.” With that, he took the necklace and tied it around his neck, which fitted perfectly when he finished tying it. He continued to fiddle with the pendant to make it fit perfectly. And once it did, Nathan’s smile grew even larger.
Roll Credits
prev chapter
![[send message]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/mail.png){kind=small}
![[befriend]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/friend.png){kind=small}
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Flag Writing
