Silver Maiden

CHAPTER XI - Als das Licht gegen die Dunkelheit Stöhnen

Weiss threw open the doors to the castle. Fire roared out at her, but quick work with Myrtenaster pacified those flames. She ran through the castle halls toward the sound of the screaming. Her weapon's glow served as her torchlight. Three hideous monsters, similar to the ones out in the town, approached her from the side. She had no time to deal with these guys. She switched to wind Dust and blew them away, quickly changing to ice and freezing them. She flipped back to fire Dust to light her path.

The screams were getting louder. There, in the next room. That's where her target was. She told herself she wouldn't fail, but even if she did fail again, she'd keep pushing on. She'd mourn for a bit and move on to the next victim that needed her help. And maybe, just maybe she would find the one that she could save.

She kicked the door down and spotted a number of those same monsters surrounding a crying young woman in the middle of the room. There were too many for her to take on by herself. And without her aura, she had no use of her Semblance. But still, she had to do something.

She pointed Myrtenaster at the macabre creatures, closing her eyes and focusing deeply. Every second was a struggle, but she needed to succeed. She could not afford another failure.

She opened her eyes as she was filled with an unbelievable power. Glyphs appeared above every single one of those monsters, but upon closer inspection, she realized that these were not the usual glyphs she was capable of summoning. These were something else, something oddly familiar. Each one consisted of some arrangement of geometric shapes, inscribed with lettering that she did not recognize. Out of each of these markings shot out some phenomenon that attacked the monsters they were targeting. Some were incinerated, others frozen until they shattered, and yet others were zapped with lightning, shredded by incredible winds, or crushed by boulders. From these markings emerged every manner of destructive force she could think up, laying waste to the monsters that surrounded that girl.

Weiss closed her eyes. For a moment, it felt like 'he' was there, standing right behind her, one hand holding Myrtenaster up with her and the other hand on her waist. When the presence was gone, she ran forward, hesitating as she took a second look at her charge.

"Yang?" she said as she ran full speed ahead. "Yang!"

Her companion slowly turned and looked up at her, tears pouring from her eyes.

"Oh my god, it is you!"

"Weiss...?" Yang managed.

Weiss threw herself on her companion. "Hey, are you okay?"

Yang looked down at the ground, unable to stop the tears.

"Yang?"

"It's all my fault," she sniffled. "I should never have...I should have just...oh god, Ruby, what have I done?"

"What? Ruby?" Weiss looked around, spotting nothing more than a bunch of red and black sheets scattered around, covering some portions of the rose bed.

Yang looked around as well, puzzled. "Ruby?"

Weiss pulled up one of the red sheets. "I don't think this is Ruby."

"But...she was just..."

Weiss sat in thought. Has everything until now been an illusion? "Yang, I think, whatever it was you saw, I think it wasn't real."

Yang looked at her.

"I...I saw my family, too. And they died. In my arms."

"Huh...?"

"Yeah. My parents were there, my brother was there, Winter was there, too. And you said you saw Ruby."

"And my mom."