RWBY Through Worlds (End)

216: Light of the World

Everyone found themselves in the white void alone, at first.

Things didn't stay that way for very long... though perhaps time itself was irrelevant under the power of the gods.

Ruby tried to run and found herself running at high speed but not seeming to go anywhere.

She tried to yell for her friends and family, but, as expected, she got no answer.

The Ruby of 6 months ago would have been overawed by this situation and just stopped and stood there.

But this Ruby, who'd fallen into Underland already and been dealing with the powers of the gods for the last 3-4 months, was a little more resilient.

Instead of shrinking back from the void, she raised her fist and her scythe and yelled into it.

"I know you're out here, you gods of Remnant!" she cried. "Show yourselves! This isn't funny!"

There was a gleam of yellow light in the void, and the god of light appeared as if behind a screen. Ruby could see at once that she couldn't have touched him; he was ethereal.

But she ran towards him anyway. He only got a little closer, because she seemed to make no traction.

"Ruby Rose," the god of light said, just as if Ruby hadn't been yelling defiance at him and this was a normal conversation. "We meet at last. One of the Silver-Eyed ones has never met me, in life."

He sounded almost proud.

Ruby was not so naive anymore as to be entirely taken in by that.

It made it sound like she was his pet.

Still, it was hard not to feel a little reassured by it.

"Why did you bring us here?" she demanded in a lower voice. "What are you doing? Bring everyone back."

"It would be wise not to demand things of your creator," the god of light said. "I brought you here to speak in private. I know something of what it is like to have the fate of so many creatures weighing on your shoulders. To want do right by them all."

Ruby lowered her scythe but kept a grip on it.

"So I want you to think about what is the course of action you wish to take," the god of light said. "The last time this happened, it did not end well for your kind. Are you willing to lead your friends, even your family, into that risk?"

"I've led them into worse ones," Ruby said. [True tho.]

The god of light didn't appear offended by that.

"Once--" he said, and as soon as she did, the void became colorful.

In fact, it was imagery much like the Lamp, so that Ruby wondered if Jinn was somehow behind it, showing her this.

"--the world of men was very different," the god of light said, as the shapes of people Ruby didn't recognize filled the scene like a 4-walled movie screen. "They had power and peace. And lived in harmony with the gods. Until one woman changed everything."

Ruby saw Salem walking through the area, as she had been when she was human.

"The pride of one person led to the destruction of the entire world," the god went on. "And what became of all those who followed her? Dead or fleeing for their lives."

Ruby saw an array of all the villains, both dead and alive.

"There must be balance," the god of light said, "or the world will end in chaos. Life and death must coexist. If you cannot accept this, the mistakes of the past will repeat themselves."