Everybody seemed to stop once Lord Tenebris said what he did to Ember. There was a moment where there wasn’t any form of motion from anybody outside of the confusion on their faces.
“Imposter?” Ember said tilting her head at her opponent. “How am I the imposter in this scenario?”
“You were given the name of a daughter of Aequo” Lord Tenebris said stepping forward, drawing his blade and pointing it at Ember. “You were given the name of somebody who truly suffered in this world without even experiencing any form of hardship. Your fool of a father….”
“You do not get to speak about my father” Ember said pointing her own weapon in her right hand back at Lord Tenebris. “Especially you of all people.” Lord Tenebris simply laughed, then cracked his neck and took his battle stance.
“I will speak of whomever I please however I please, especially if they are people who pretend to be of Aequo, when in reality, they are nothing more than mockeries of the people who truly lived there.”
“You seem to know a whole lot about a village that’s been destroyed for decades” Terra said stepping forward with her armor at the ready.
“I speak as the last true son of Aequo” Lord Tenebris said relaxing from his battle stance and raising his arms to the sky. “And it is my quest to not only snuff out those who dishonor the legacy of Aequo, but to return it to its former glory and…..”
“You talk too much” Arri said as she rushed forward and slashed Lord Tenebris across the chest with her scythe. Lord Tenebris recoiled from the attack, stumbling back behind the strike squad that he had brought with him. As he regained his composure, he signaled his troops to attack. The strike squad, mostly Order goons with electric batons and pistols, all rushed forward to engage Team BEAT. Bovia quickly reacted, sending out a force of water to try and knock back the enemy, but the goons using batons quickly activated the electrical current of their weapons. And while they did take some damage from the initial impact of the water from Bovia’s attack, the electricity from their weapons flowed right through the water and hurt Bovia, knocking her off her feet. After that, the goons were able to rush forward again, forcing the remaining members of Team BEAT to rush forward and face them head on as well. Terra formed armor made of rocks on her body and started beating the tar out of everybody that was in the near vicinity of her attacks, making sure that the electric batons didn’t hit her. And if they did, they would just harmlessly bounce off her armor of stones. A few attacks managed to chip away pieces of the armor leaving parts of her body exposed however, creating openings for attacks. The growing attacks resulted in Terra having her aura almost depleted, and the fact that her Semblance was draining her aura as well meant she would be all but defenseless in a few minutes. Meanwhile, Arri was faced with the full force of the strike squad as she had rushed forward to attack Lord Tenebris leaving herself wide open. And without any real plant life around, she couldn’t use her Semblance. So, having to think quickly, Arri spun her scythe around in a circle like her mother taught her years ago. It managed to keep all of the enemies at bay long enough for Ember to rush forward and knock a couple of soldiers backwards. When she did that, the soldier’s attention were suddenly drawn to Ember, leaving Arri with the chance to quickly take down a few opponents that were immediately surrounding her. With that, she rushed forward and started taking out several other troops that were distracted by Ember or underestimated her own abilities. Meanwhile, Bovia slowly got up after recovering from the electric shock, and realized that nobody else had noticed she had gotten back up yet. She took this opportunity to get back beneath the waterfall and regenerate the aura she had lost in the attack. But then she noticed something. Lord Tenebris had gotten up as well, and instead of fighting the rest of Team BEAT, he was walking around the cave walls where they were fighting, tapping the wall with his tuning fork sword. Then, it seemed that he had found something. A moment later, Lord Tenebris placed his hand on his mask, as if activating a communicator. Not sure what was going on, she pulled out a communicator of her own and quickly called up Natalie.
Everybody who could still fight continued to hold off the advances of the Order at the front gates while the evacuation ships continued to move the wounded away from the battle. Despite the fact that Haven was so high up in terms of the rest of the kingdom of Mistral, after what had happened at Beacon years ago, all the schools were upgraded to ensure maximum safety for those either hiding inside or those in the courtyard defending the school. Miles took a step back from the main gates, pulled up his Scroll and called general Ironwood.
“General, we could use some good news” Miles said as he pinched his forehead.
“The rest of the evacuation vessels should be able to get there soon enough” Ironwood responded. “But I’m not sure that we can hold this airspace for much longer. I’ve already called the incoming Vale and Vacuo airships and told them that they will be covering our retreat instead of supporting this battle.”
“Is there really nothing else we can do general?”
“Not unless you want everybody in the school to be caught in the crossfire.”
“All right then. See you in a few minutes.” Miles hung up and made his way back over to where his friends were standing. Pyrrha and Jaune were making sure their family were all okay, Christy was helping tend to the injuries of civilians and huntsmen, and everybody looked dazed and confused. Miles walked over and sat down next to Blake who was clearly shaken up.
“How did this happen?” Blake said fighting back tears. “We defeated them years ago, and now here they are, destroying everything we care about all over again.”
“They surprised us” Miles said placing his hand on her shoulder. “We didn’t know what to expect or when to expect it. It’s a miracle we managed to salvage what we did. Instead of worrying about what did happen, let’s just be thankful that we didn’t lose anybody else here today.” Blake smiled and placed her hand on Miles’ hand.
“You’re right. Besides, we’ve lost before. And we bounced right back and kicked them out. I just hope we’re better prepared next time we……” Suddenly, Natalie walked right past them talking on her Scroll.
“What do you mean they’re searching for something else down there?” Natalie said running her hand through her hair. Miles stood up and walked over to Natalie.
“Natls, what’s going on?”
“Hang on Bovia,” Natalie said turning to face Miles, “let me put you on speaker phone.” Natalie took her Scroll, pushed a button, then held it up so both her and Miles could hear.
“Can you hear me?” Bovia’s voice started coming through the Scroll.
“As well as we can given our circumstances” Miles said folding his arms. “What’s going on Bovia? You should have received the evacuation orders long ago?”
“Got busy dealing with a group of Order soldiers trying to sneak through the tunnels.”
“So they did know about the passages. We should let Pyrrha know and….”
“That’s not important right now!” Bovia said almost shouting as she cut Miles off. “Look, that guy who killed Ember’s dad is here and….”
“Wait, he’s here?” Natalie said moving the Scroll closer to her face as if to amplify her own voice. “Why didn’t you call it in as soon as he arrived?”
“Will you let me finish?! He’s here now, and it looks like he’s trying to find something hidden in the cave walls.”
“Something hidden?” Miles asked with confusion. “How do you mean?”
“I don’t know how to fully describe it outside of he looks like he’s trying to find a hidden room or something.”
“Why isn’t he trying to attack the city? That’s what the rest of the Order is doing.”
“We should find Pyrrha” Natalie said turning back towards where she last saw her friend. “Maybe she could provide some insight. Stay on the line Bovia. We’ll be right back.” With that, the two of them quickly found Pyrrha.
“What’s going on?” Pyrrha asked as she stood up from helping one of her children make sure he had everything. Natalie simply held up the Scroll to Pyrrha and said,
“Bovia, we’ve got Pyrrha here. Tell her what you’re seeing.”
“Ok Headmistress Pyrrha….” Bovia started but then Pyrrha cut her off saying,
“Just Pyrrha darling or we’re going to be here all day.”
“Ok Pyrrha, well from the looks of things, it seems like the Order is banging on the walls around the waterfall here trying to find some kind of secret passage or room.”
“Secret passage? But if they’re already using the waterfall passage, why would they be looking through the wall for….oh no.” Pyrrha immediately grabbed her weapons and started running for the school. Confused, Miles and Natalie ran after her.
“What’s wrong?” Miles yelled as he managed to catch up to Pyrrha super quickly.
“What am I supposed to tell Bovia?” Natalie said as she also managed to catch up with them as well.
“Bovia!” Pyrrha said almost yelling at the Scroll, “Help your teammates! We’ll be there as soon as we can!”
“Got it” Bovia said hanging up leaving the three of them to keep running towards the school. As they kept running, Jacob, Evan, Yang, and Brooklyn started running alongside them.
“What’s going on?” Jacob asked trying to make sure he didn’t run out of breath.
“No time to explain now!” Pyrrha said as she grabbed a pocket watch from out of her armor. As she grabbed the pocket watch, they all made it into the main hall of the school, and then Pyrrha ran over to a nearby statue and put the watch in a little slot, where it began whirring and spinning. Seconds later, the statue lowered itself into the floor revealing an elevator of sorts, with the top of the statue acting as a platform.
“Everybody get on!” Pyrrha yelled as she ran onto the platform. Everybody else followed suit, and the platform began lowering itself into the ground as soon as everybody was on.
“Pyrrha,” Evan said catching his breath, “please tell us what is wrong? What is even happening right now?”
Bovia put her Scroll away, grabbed her weapon, and launched herself right back into the thick of battle. The strike squad was struggling to deal with the members of Team BEAT, and it was clear that it was a losing battle. There was one goon who was trying to sneak up on Ember, who was pre-occupied with beating the pulp out of an Order member. But before the soldier could attack, the weighted end of Bovia’s kusarigama hit the back of the head of her opponent. The soldier went down with a thud, which caught the attention of Ember.
“Still struggling to case your surroundings I see” Bovia said as she walked past Ember.
“We are in a cavern after all, not like I can hear everything like normal” Ember said cracking her neck and continuing to make her way towards Lord Tenebris. Terra and Arri dispatched their opponents swiftly as well, leaving nothing standing between them and Lord Tenebris. They all lined up and got in their battle poses. Lord Tenebris simply chuckled, and pointed his sword at them.
“You’ve failed.”
“We failed?” Terra said as she looked at all the fallen Order soldiers. “From the looks of things, you’re the only thing standing between us and a complete victory.”
“My victory was not dependent on your victory or defeat,” Lord Tenebris said raising his sword even higher. “It depended on you not being able to dispatch them before my reinforcements arrived.” Suddenly, several Order soldiers poured out from the caverns and into the open, weapons at the ready. Team BEAT was completely caught off-guard. And in that instant of confusion, Lord Tenebris took his sword and struck it down on the ground, creating a giant sound shockwave that sent Team BEAT flying backwards and over the side of the cliff next to the waterfall. As they flew over the side, Lord Tenebris then turned to his reinforcements, and took a knee as Lord Imperia made her entrance.
“Very well done Lord Tenebris” Lord Imperia said walking past him. “So, this wall is thin enough that we can penetrate it?”
“That is correct my lord” Lord Tenebris said as he stood. “The demolition team will have no issue getting in there with only one charge.”
“Good. Bring in the chamber.” As she said this, soldiers started prepping the wall to explode, while a different group of soldiers appeared from the tunnels pushing a small pod. The pod was clearly medical in nature, and it was holding something. Lord Imperia smiled, and covered her ears as the demolition charges exploded. Looking through the giant gaping hole, she saw the giant golden tree and the giant golden doors.
“The Chamber of Knowledge. At long last.”
As the platform continued to descend into the depths below, Pyrrha kept trying to reach out to Professor Ozpin.
“No good” she said finally putting the Scroll away. “Signal’s not strong enough down here. We just have to hope for the best.”
“Pyrrha,” Natalie said clearly stressed out, “you still haven’t told us what’s wrong.” Pyrrha drew her weapons and got into a ready battle position.
“There’s not enough time to explain everything right now, we’re almost at the bottom. All I can say right now is that there is a giant door that leads to a relic that we can’t allow the Order to possess.”
“All right then” Yang said loading her gauntlets, “Let’s take some names.” The platform slowed to a halt, revealing several Order members standing around a giant door. Lord Imperia turned around and saw everybody standing there in battle position.
“How intriguing” Lord Imperia said with a sick smile. “Lord Tenebris, would you care to keep them away from me until I get what we came here for?”
“Of course my lord” Lord Tenebris said drawing his sword. As he walked forward, Lord Imperia turned her attention back to the giant door and the small pod they had sitting in front of it. Meanwhile, Lord Tenebris kept walking towards his new opponents, and pointed his weapon right at Miles.
“You” he said with anger in his voice. “You claim to be a child of Aequo.”
“I am a child of Aequo” Miles said drawing his swords. “I was born and raised there until it fell.”
“I was born there as well” Jacob said stepping forward. “Though I spent much of my time traveling the world, I always called it home.”
“Same here” Evan said as he prepared his spear. “Aequo was a truly great place, taken away from this world far too soon.”
“Yeah” Natalie said also stepping forward. “And you are the monster who took away one of the best children of Aequo. Just because he tried to stop you from destroying the world.”
“You are all fools!” Lord Tenebris said with a shout. “You are all pretenders! I am the last true child of Aequo! You claim to care about Aequo, but you take no action for her! I will do what must be done for our home!”
“Okay, are you stupid or something?” Jacob asked loading dust crystals into his kunai blades while Lord Tenebris continued to rant.
“No,” Lord Tenebris said as he tensed up for his first attack. “Just somebody who has learned of the true path to reality.” With that, Lord Tenebris launched himself forward, but found himself stopped just short of the four. When the dust settled, it was revealed that Yang was standing there, blocking the attack with her robot arm.
“Yeah, I’ve got a score to settle with you first bub.” With that, Yang punched Lord Tenebris in the gut. While most people would have gone flying from such an attack, Lord Tenebris simply skidded back a few feet before regaining his composure.
“Well then,” Lord Tenebris said cracking his neck. “You will share in their fate as well fool.”
Ozpin was trying to make sure that he didn’t miss anything when he was ordering the troops that were flying out to Mistral to try and help. All the while, he was racking his brain about what the Order was trying to accomplish in Mistral. And how much they actually knew about the secrets he had stored in there centuries ago. Suddenly, his Scroll went off. It was a message from Pyrrha. It simply read,
“Order knows about the chamber. What’s the status of the Spring Maiden?” Suddenly Ozpin realized exactly what was going on. He collapsed in his chair, covering his face with his hands.
“It’s all my fault.”
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