The Wings of a Valkyrie: Male Reader x Pyrrha Nikos (Part II)

Chapter I: Ingredients for War Include...

This is the story of (F/N) (L/N), a soldier during the Great War of Remnant. It is a story of loss. Of life and death and truth and lies and weight and consequence. It is the story of the men who return from war only to find the grass is yellow and dry, and the sun doesn't shine as brightly, and, it is the story of the men who never return. It is the story of a sixteen-year-old boy who enlisted to protect his family. A boy whose naiveté was exploited, and his childhood robbed. A boy forced to do things he did not agree with to win a battle he did not understand. This is the story of war.

After the Great War, the four Kingdoms of Remnant entered an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity. Economies flourished and technology advanced at an exponential rate. For the past one-hundred years there has been amity. It has been quiet and lulling and beautiful. It has been a lie.

Though, to the citizens of the world, it appeared as if Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, and Vale were coexisting harmoniously, the truth was the four maintained a delicate balance. Treaties had been signed and communications opened, and yet the size of the militaries grew, and the technological advancement of new armaments prioritized. Politicians preach goodwill for the purpose of reelection, but behind closed doors the Kingdoms' councils know the truth. Peacetime is not spent on charity; it is spent in preparation for the next war.

No one knows when the next war will come. No one knows who the enemy will be. The best thing anyone can do is wait and watch.

For a long time, it appeared to the world that the next war that would be fought would be between Humans and Faunus. What had started as a peaceful civil rights movement had quickly become a violent anarchist cult. In attempting to avoid a war, the Kingdoms' governments had been quick to label the White Fang as terrorists. In doing so they hoped to remove their threat as a potential enemy, instead pretending them nothing more than radical extremists. But pretending does not make truth. Ignoring a problem does not make it disappear. The White Fang continued to grow in both size and influence. They had become a real threat.

The Purifiers formed as a response to the White Fang. Fight fire with fire. The perfect recipe for war. The balance that had been so delicately maintained for the last century was starting to topple. Violence was met with violence, culminating in a showdown at Summa Academy. Fortunately, war had been averted, thanks in large to a small collection of Beacon students, huntsmen and huntresses. The White Fang backed down, the Purifiers disbanded, and their leader, Klar Reinman, taken into custody. But, in resolving one problem, a larger one arose.

(F/N) (L/N), thought to have perished in the final moments of the Great War, was revealed to be alive and well. Responsible for the deaths of countless families' relatives, the public branded the young man a monster.

While the public feared the man, the Kingdoms feared Atlas. Why had they preserved the young man? Why had they freed him? Why was he sent to Beacon Academy under the guise of a transfer student? What was Atlas planning?

Over the past century Atlas' had amassed the largest military presence in the history of the world. Now it was revealed that they had also preserved who many historians had labeled the most dangerous man on the planet. His release could surely mean only one thing. War.

Ingredients for war include;

Fear: It turns the wisest of men to fools. People can't think rationally when they're afraid. They can't see the consequences of their actions because they're too busy searching for the monsters hiding in the darkness.

Hate: If you go into war, you're gonna end up leaving and hating some part of it. Maybe it's the shitty food. Maybe it's the endless hours of marching. Maybe you end up hating all of it. But the best soldiers? The best soldiers hate the enemy. They hate them so much they want to kill them. And that hate makes them good at killing.