Episode 3: Chapter 11: Seal

Chapter 11 of Episode 3 of War of Seasons

            Ember spun out of the way of a few more dark bodies as the last of the team leaping down to the ground below vanished beneath the slab.  She pondered following them, but decided to trust Ruby and the team down there with handling things.  With that in mind, she charged forward and tried to reach Imperia, who was simply hovering in the air, firing rounds of Dust down on them without facing anybody at close range.  This frustrated Yang more and more, as she tried to reach her.

            “Fight me coward!” she yelled launching herself into the air towards Imperia, only for another group of dark bodies to drag her back down to the slab.  Imperia chuckled as she continued her tactic of not engaging her opponents.

            “I don’t care about your stupid family quarrels,” she said firing a bolt of lightning at a nearby Aurora, who had to use her speed to dodge it.  “I only care about surviving this ordeal so that the Order can survive!  And if that can be accomplished by helping your idiot husband destroy the world?  So be it.”

            “You know for a therapist,” Aurora said as she morphed her weapon to pistol form, “you really ought to try and understand your patients a bit more instead of killing them.”

            “Time and place for quips kiddo!” Miles yelled as he sliced through a few more dark bodies.  “Don’t think this is it.”

            “Oh please, like you and mom didn’t do quips a ton back when you were my age!”

            “Not when the world depended on it!”

            “Arguments later!” Blake yelled as she kicked another dark body off the side of the slab.  “Fight for the universe now!”

            “Fighting her is pointless!” Natalie yelled firing several more shots at Imperia who blocked them all easily.  “We need to stop Nathan and that veil!  I know those spirits are dead and probably have unlimited stamina, but they aren’t as powerful as Nathan is!”

            “How many people can we even get up there?” Gray yelled slicing through another group of enemies.  “Ember has the spirits of grandma and dad’s teacher, so she’s critical to the plan.  But we aren’t going to let her fight him alone!

            “That’s exactly what you’re going to have to do!”  Ember said bashing in the skull of a dark body.  “We can’t expect my father to struggle with the spirits much longer!  And he seems to have it out for me, so I can at least try to buy some time for another solution if it arises!  And if he becomes fixated on me, that might stop the veil from getting closer to the surface!”

            “As if I would let you anywhere close to him!” Imperia mocked as more dark bodies began to form.  Suddenly, a shot rang out from below the slab, and the main body that was producing the dark bodies hanging in the sky went limp and fell to the earth below, leaving Imperia to her own defenses.  Realizing they had a short opening where Imperia wasn’t paying attention, Yang launched herself towards Imperia, and punched her straight down into the slab.  The impact created a small crater in the center of the slab.  Imperia struggled to get back up, clearly dazed from the attack.

            “Go Ember!” Yang yelled as she landed back on the slab and ran towards Imperia.  Ember nodded her head, and looked at the two clubs.

            “Mind giving me a lift?”  With that said, the spirits of Traci and Em floated out of the weapons, and lifted Ember straight up towards the veil in the sky.  Imperia tried to use her Semblance and drag her back down, but Aurora moved in to attack with her swords, forcing Imperia to break concentration and defend herself.  The two of them traded blows for a few seconds before Imperia pushed back and leapt a short distance away.  As she looked up to try and see if she could still act, she saw that she was too late.  Ember was now already on the other side of the veil, and was saying something to Nathan.  But she didn’t have time to try and figure out what was being said, for in that instant, Pyrrha threw her shield at her, hitting Imperia right in the forehead, causing her to stumble.  Pyrrha rushed forward with this opportunity and landed several blows to Imperia’s arms and body.  The pain from these attacks managed to help Imperia snap back to reality and start parrying the attacks.  Her aura was still intact, but was clearly hanging by a thread.  Before Pyrrha could destroy the last remainders of her aura however, Imperia activated a fire dust crystal at point blank range, sending Pyrrha flying towards the edge of the slab.  Gray managed to catch Pyrrha with his metal coils before she plummeted to the ground below and helped her back upright.  Imperia wiped some of the sweat off her brow, and prepared for the next attack.

            “I’ve come too far to be stopped by some stupid, rag-tag….” As Imperia was saying this, Miles rushed forward once again and began attacking with Imperia desperately trying to guard against the attacks.

            “What did I say about talking?” he said with a growl as he attempted to land another strike with his swords.  Imperia thought about activating her Semblance, but she didn’t have enough aura to even lift a pebble with her abilities.  So she resorted to continuing to parry the onslaught of attacks.  She took her staff and loaded a wind crystal into the chamber, and blasted Miles with a powerful burst of energy.  It wasn’t enough to cause Miles to lose his footing, but powerful enough to cause him to slide back a few feet.  Yang took this opportunity to rush forward herself and start punching Imperia left and right.  Yang’s attacks were reckless and normally easy to counter, but Imperia was struggling to even keep up with her own movements.  It was clear that Imperia was fighting a losing battle.  Her aura was almost gone, and she couldn’t even keep up with random strikes from Yang.  She tried weighing her options for escape, but before she even had a chance to think, Yang grabbed her by the collar, and threw her back towards the rest of the group.  As she was flying through the air, Aurora and Gray ran up alongside her, and they both jumped up and landed several powerful strikes on her back.  From there, Blake grabbed her with the ribbon part of her blade, Miles increased the pull of gravity on Imperia, and then Blake slammed Imperia into the slab.  Natalie then wrapped her scythe around Imperia, and flung her back up into the air, where Yang, who Beanie helped lift up into the sky via a platform of water, was waiting in midair to punch Imperia back down into the ground, causing the small crater in the middle of the slab to become even larger.  Imperia coughed up a bit of blood once she crashed down, and tried to get back up.  But as she raised her hand to try and crawl forward, she collapsed on the slab, unable to move or act, falling unconscious.  Beanie ran over and checked her vital signs.

            “Still alive” he said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.  As he said this, the light of the sky began to change.  The red veil hanging overhead began to disappear, and everything was returning to normal.  The natural light was coming through, the world looked normal, and without the veil hanging overhead, there was now rain falling from the sky above.  Blake ran over to the side of the slab to look down at the earth below, and saw that the Red Grimm were starting to dissipate into thin air.

            “Did Ember do it?” Miles asked as he held out his hand to feel the rain drops.

            “I think she did” Pyrrha said with a smile.  Suddenly, two items fell from the sky above.  The first was the Relic of Life, floating softly as a calming aura glowed off of it.  The second was Professor Ozpin.  He was still conscious, but was clearly burned out.

            “And there’s Jacob’s ticket to perfect health!” Natalie said with a smile.

            “I’ll run this down to him below” Miles said grabbing the rosary.  “I’ll have the easiest time getting down there without hurting myself.”  With that, Miles leapt off the side of the slab and used his Semblance to slow his decent to the world below.  Aurora watched with a smile on her face as Miles took the Relic and started using it to heal Jacob’s infection, which cleared up in a hurry.  From there, Christy used the Relic to replenish her own aura, and then went around helping others who needed healing, as did Miles with the Relic.

            “Looks like we win” Yang said staring up at the sky.  Natalie nodded in agreement, and walked over to help Professor Ozpin.

            “Let’s get you down to the surface Professor” she said with a smile.  “Looks like you need the….”

            “….the Relic…..” Ozpin said with a hoarse voice.

            “Yes professor, we’ll get you to the Relic of Life in just a moment.  First….”

            “No….the Relic….of Connection…..” as Ozpin said this, in a split second, there was a bright flash up in the sky, and everybody turned to see what was happening, as a giant white light began to envelop everything, forcing everybody to cover their eyes, not sure what was going on, or what was going to follow after.

Author's Note

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