The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 32 - The Clean Slate - Pt. 3

Jaune

Wide eyed...

He collapses to his knees with defeat, tears well up in his eyes as he watches the huge cloud of fire and smoke rise into the sky. They all stare at the rumbling sky with horror, realising that they have just failed...on a massive scale as well. All of the politicians were inside of that building, and now they are ashes in the wind...

Weiss' mother...

Klein...

Ironwood...

They are all dead, even the President is dead as well. The world is completely lost of leaders, and now the enemy have made their presence known once more. Jaune's lip trembles with fear as he stares at the rumbling skyscraper of smoke, rubble and fire that continues to rise, mushrooming outwards above the buildings that surround it. Windows for miles were shattered by that powerful explosion; they can actually feel the heat of the flames all the way from there.

Their deaths would have been instantaneous.

Nora grabs Ren's arm and holds him close, looking away from the cloud of fire that continues to expand across Mistral.

Pyrrha stands there, with such guilt and a sense of responsibility on her shoulders as she stares at what has happened. "This is all my fault..." Pyrrha gasps with horror, and Kassius is the only one that snaps out of that trance of shock that he shared with them. He shakes his head and turns to them all.

"We need to get the hell out of Atlas." Kassius tells them, walking away from them with his sword in his hand. Jaune remains on his knees – he has felt defeat before but nothing quite like this. All the lives that were just taken, not just the politicians but even the civilians nearby. That explosion wiped out multiple blocks of the city; if it were any larger it could have been enough to destroy most of the city.

Whitley did this – and he did not mess around with those crates of fire dust, he really wanted to make sure that the building was reduced to ashes.

And the whole world saw what happened, the chaos that could emerge from this event...the dread in the air...they can actually taste it. And the Grimm will as well, like sharks drawn to blood in the sea, they will come for the Kingdoms just as they did when Beacon fell over five years ago.

Kassius keeps going but he stops and turns to everyone who is frozen. He is shocked too, but he has his mind focused on getting them all out of the city, one that is soon going to be invaded. He is no fool, this is part of their plan, and they already have Acolytes of Lien inside of the city, meaning they will invade once again. "Guys!" Kassius calls, his voice echoes across the block as he stands behind them, and Penny turns to him with shocked eyes. "We have to go." He repeats, calmly in comparison to getting their attention.

"Go where?" Jaune questions, with actual hopelessness in his voice, and Kassius looks at them with dread...they cannot lose hope in winning now. "He just won...the world just lost every single leader we had...Umbra managed to do all of it in under an hour..." Jaune stammers with fear, and Pyrrha looks at him with anguish, and she looks at Kassius. She is not overly familiar with the Cyborg Huntsman, but she looks at him with what appears to be a begging, as if she wants him to inspire them.

"Yeah, he just pulled one hell of a wildcard on us." Kassius states as he walks towards the Hunters, they all slowly begin to turn and look at him as he speaks, hoping to bring that bravery back into them. "He killed a lot of people, I know – Brimstone was one of them – it is a big blow, I know that." He says as he stands there, the he looks down at the streets beneath that are void of people. It is like they have been imprisoned and there is nothing they can do to free them.