No one's p.o.v.
With neo falling into the void, y/n saw red. Snapping his fingers, his swarm of kryll came to his aid. He grid his teeth, but very slowly calmed down.
Y/n: "there is still a connection to her, it's weak but its there, meaning she's alive. I can't use the troika either, ore the bullet rain is gonna hit civilians."
While he collected himself, He noticed everyone around him was already engaging in a fight with the fall maiden. Surprisingly to y/n however, they were struggling as a group of 4 against her.
Helmet out a screech and pointed his finger at cinder which was the signal to the kryll to attack rather than protect.
The carnivorous beasts flew at cinder at great speed and started to eat away at her Aura. However she quickly averted further damage by using flames to protect her.
Y/n: "My kryll may have a resistance to the sun, but flames are a different story...i can't risk having her kill them all..."
The kryll retreated and the king send them away for safety. He formed a fist and activated the gauntlet Maxis gave him. He was about to fire at cinder when he heard a scream.
Looking to the side he saw Yang was pushed over the edge and falling into the void by an explosion caused by Cinder. Blake's ribbon wasn't long enough to reach her, which made Blake and Ruby break down.
Enraged, she wildly attacked Cinder only to be pushed back repeatedly and made penny come back, trying to fight cinder.
The king of the horde opened his fist, and using the ice dust crystal in his glove, formed a lance made of ice which he threw at cinder like a Javelin, hitting her square in the back. However cinder being cinder, she used more dirty tricks and fired a volly of explosive blades at civilians who just entered the centeral location.
Weiss got there as fast as she could to block the explosions, but she took the blunt of the attack, cracking her Aura, leaving her weakened.
While penny and cinder continued with their Arial combat, y/n again tried using a Lance. However this time, cinder was moving to fast for a precise shot, and he didn't want to risk penny flying into its trajectory.
Once again, he grid his teeth. Back in sera he wouldn't have given this a second though and just pulled out his handheld troika to mow her down. And locust that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the King's crossfire were always already willing to die for the horde. This time however? They aren't from the horde. He can't just mow them down without a care. He doesn't want to unnecessarily hurt or kill any innocent bystanders or even....friends.
Y/n: "so...this is what it feels like to be...powerless for once. "
As penny landed near the exit toward Vacuo with Weiss and the staff of creation, cinder attacked once more, only to be kicked to the side by Blake, telling Weiss to get up, which she did. Ruby, finally back to her senses, joined the fight, but sadly for her, her crescent rose was to slow to use against a nimble opponent, Wich results in her getting pushed back and kicked multiple times, cracking now her Aura.
And as Weiss went to look after her, cinder detonated an Explosion below the two but only Weiss got hit since she pushed Ruby out, resulting in her Aura being broken.
However trough the force of the detonation, Ruby was pushed off the platform onto a lower one and hanging by it's pathway, while also loosing her weapon to the void. Cinder seeing this, pushed Blake and penny back using her flames, to fly down and grabbing the staff.
Before she could hit Ruby's hand and send her falling down, y/n had enough and ran towards her, firing his turret from the hip. Some bullets hit her, damaging her Aura, but the rest was blocked by a shield she made of fire. That fire soon extended and slightly burned Ruby's hand, making her pull her hand back out of reflex, resulting in her falling.
Y/n: "Ruby!!!"
Penny Cam in flying with Blake who got tossed at Ruby who got grabbed by her, and quickly tried using her gambol shroud to pull herself and Ruby back up.
That plan however was stopped by cinder who threw her fire at gambol shrouds ribbon, burning it, and cutting the connection, sending both girls down to disappear.
Y/n had enough, he put his turret back on his back, and charged cinder who shot fireball after fireball at him. Doing virtually nothing as it all bounced off on his armor. He then tackled her to the ground and proceeded to pumble her with punches to the face, arms and side almost cracking her Aura.
When Cinder had enough of the beating, she used her flames to push y/n off her and back, almost sending him off the edge. But he stood his ground and got right back to her with another lance of ice. She counter with a lance of fire which collided in mid air creating a large smoke screen. Before y/n could react, he felt cinder kicking him in the chest before flying off, having y/n hang from one of the bridges, slowly pulling himself back up.
Y/n: "I will have her head, i don't care WHAT IT TAKES!"
He pulled himself up and started running towards the top. He stopped mid way there after hearing a deafening Scream of pain.
Y/n: "That was penny!"
He continued, and as he got closer, he heard the sound of blades clashing and soon after, the loud sobbing of Jaune.
Once he reached the top, he saw why he was sobbing. He beheaded penny so cinder couldn't steal her powers of the winter maiden. Cinder in her rage attacked jaune, and breaking his blade as he tried defending himself before pushing the guy to the ground."
Cinder: "where did it go!"
Her question was answered when a frost last hit her back, and behind everyone, in the air, was winter Schnee, who quickly engaged in a battle with the fall maiden. Using winters distraction, y/n went over to Weiss and jaune to help them reach the door to Vacuo. Cinder noticed this, as the staff of creation fell to the ground and fired at the three. Jaune used his shield to stop it from hitting them, which helped, but it did knock them to the ground however. Using that, cinder once again charged an Explosion below the three, and winter came charging, trying to help them, but to no avail.
The detonation broke jaunes aura, send Y/n back further from the door, and Weiss...over the edge, out of winters reach.
As Winter was ready to fight cinder again, and y/n got up with his troika in hand, a scream that shook the dimension was heard. Salem was alive once more.
Jaune: "We need to go...Now!"
Winter: "You! Are going to pay! For EVERYTHING You've done!"
With that said, the three made their way towards the exit while cinder used a different one. But soon after she was gone, the dimensions pathways started to disappear., Causing the three to go faster.
Y/n: "I can still feel her...so she is alive...but where are you my dear..."
The other two continued on their way, as y/n crossed his arms and snapped his fingers to summon his kryll. He will fall to find his princess, no matter where hell end up.
Y/n: "Siviks, take command of the brigade in my absence, i must find Neo. Tell myrrah nto to worry, i will be back. I always come back."
Siviks: "But my lord! what about the rat i caught now?"
Y/n: "THATS AN ODER SIVIKS! I WILL BE BACK! DONT WORRY! AND KEEP AN EYE ON THE RAT, THROW HIM BEHIND BARS UNTIL I ARRIVE AGAIN!"
Siviks: "Yes my king!"
With that, the king fell into the void, not knowing what happened to jaune or winter...
Meanwhile in the Atlas control room, Siviks was walking out to meet his reaver and throw the rat he caught in front of it.
Siviks: "the king....he's still there, but i can't reach him, where is he? Be a good boy and don't struggle, otherwise the reaver with think you are food when your stuck in it's claws."
Watts: "Oh don't worry, I'm glad you got me out of there. I should have known that brat was going to let me die one way or another."
Siviks: "you're welcome. It's only because of his majesty's orders that i rescued you. He knew cinder was going to leave you to die. He thinks you might be of value."
The reaver grabbed watts in it's front claws and the three started to fly towards the outpost.
Siviks: "Kridis, ready to seal the entrance?"
Kridis: "we are only waiting for you Siviks."
Siviks: "Good, ill be there shortly."
On his way there, he noticed a ship in the air with 4 people in it. Qrow, Robyn, Elm and Harriet. He waved them to follow him and they did. They arrived shortly in the outpost and quicky went inside. As kridis and her subordinates sealed the entrance with rock, dirt, and a metal wall provided by the locust head scientist maxis.
Qrow: "Why are we sealing the exit?! The others are still out there!"
Maxis: "When atlas is going to fall, the following earthquake will destroy the surrounding Ice with a 92% possibility which results in mantle being completely flooded. As for the others, no one knows where they are."
Siviks: "The king told me to lead the brigade while is searching for the princess...we can still feel him, but weak...he is alive, but we don't know where. And my guess is that wherever he is, the others are too."
Everyone's head hung for a minute hoping that everyone is going to be alright...
Location: unknown
As the king slowly got back to his senses, he sat up and opened his eyes, lying on what looks like a beach of sorts, leading into a forest with a massive tree at it's center.
Y/n: "Where in the name of the three great worms did i land???"
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A/n
And that people, concludes Volume 8!! I really do hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had to redesign some parts of this to fit the fact that neo...well...wasn't part of the bad guys here. Hope i did it some justice 😅
I'll be picking this book back up once volume 9 is out but until that Happens, the book that's joining my other book on a weekly writing rotation is going to be "remnants Bounty hunter" so yeah, I'm kinda excited to continue that one. I gotta read what i did so far, maybe even change a few things, but yeah, that's the book that I'll be doing for now! See you all in volume 9!