The end of an age

{Salem's POV}

Nothing had gone to plan. With my legions disposed of, my power was the lowest it had been in CENTURIES. My pawns had learned of this yesterday after Watts and the brute Hazel had 'confronted' me of it. Even now, I couldn't stop myself from scoffing."The fools, even weakened as I am, this is still MY domain." They believed they could leverage ME!? Could use my bout of weakness to make DEMANDS of ME?!

If they had tried this ANYWHERE outside of my domain, away from the Grimm pools, then I WOULD'VE succumbed. But with my 'connection' to the pools, I still had strength and resources far above theirs. "But still. I need new pawns... Tyrian is still... Indisposed. Watts and Hazel have shown their willingness to mutiny... Cinder is dead." I couldn't keep myself from increasing the grip on my throne as I let those words leave my lips. "Mercury and Emerald have been detained, and due to their treachery, I've lost my hold on Leonardo... They will not be free any time soon either... But where will I get these pawns from?"

That was the issue. With the reduction of my powers, I could hardly use my Seer's. It was because of this that I had lost the cowardly headmaster. All my focus was on raising the armies, and my Seer had been killed before I had noticed it. From what I had gathered, he was incarcerated somewhere. Despite his nature, he was perhaps one of my most useful pawns... And I had lost him due to my tunnel vision... I moved on from those thoughts.

The furthest I would be able to currently send any Seer's would be the edge of the Grimmlands. Any further, and I would lose my connection with them. And that would not do. "I can't send my Seers. I have no pawns to use at the moment... I need a new board..." That was the only conclusion I could come too.

Ozma still had his board. If that surge of magic I had felt yesterday was one of his, then he had an even BIGGER advantage. I was at my weakest since the start of our little game.

For what must've been hours, the only sounds going through my throne room were the tapping of my nails against my throne, and the ambient sounds of the Grimmlands. Then, I came to another conclusion. "I need time. I can outlast Ozma and the pawns in his current board, so for now... I wait." That conclusion was one I made through gritted teeth.

Because it wasn't just Ozma that I had to wait out. I grit my teeth and my throne's armrest even harder now. "The World Traveler and his mates." I practically spat those words out.

It had all stemmed from them.

Cinder's plan had been going well. I was sure without their influence, I would've had a maiden in my grasp.

But the plan had failed due to them. That single sleight had derailed everything. Now, I was forced to 'hibernate' and reclaim the power I'd expended in my failed attempt to rid me of them and the Silver Eyed Warrior. "That damned man." He was the root of my problems, one I'd need to... Wait out. When they grew bored of our realm, they would surely leave.

I just needed to wait.

But it seemed the world had other plans.

At the edge of my senses, I felt intruders in the Grimmlands. The Grimm were being culled by something, and I needed to find out WHAT. So I connected to a Seer, and searched.

And when I found what was causing a disturbance in my territory, I almost destroyed my throne. "They're HERE?!" The World Traveler and his women, all except the pink haired one were in my territory. My rage ALMOST clouded my vision.

Almost.

I knew that this was the worst possible outcome, and so I needed to prepare as much as I could to repel them. "... But what can I do?" With my current level of power, I was limited in ways I haven't been for centuries.

I could spur the Grimm pools to spawn more Grimm.

I could try to force every Grimm in the Grimmlands to converge on their location.

I could try to use my magic against them.

But that was all. "And it won't be enough..." I could do nothing but grit my teeth and watch as the Grimm were cut down by the swordswoman. Despite my rage, I still kept my clarity. So I understood I had no viable options.

With the amount of power I expended against them earlier, my magic would be at a just manifested maiden. And from what I had seen through my Grimm Dragon's eyes, it would not be enough. I couldn't rouse the Titan I kept in the Grimmlands due to my lack of power. (It wouldn't matter anyway.) And that thought was correct.

It wouldn't.

So I started gathering my magic. Despite my weakened state, I refused to let myself be taken down without some form of fight.

So as I felt my Grimm die out, I continued to gather my magic, and waited.

And finally, after what seemed to be an hour, they came. The front door to my throne room was kicked down, and I was met by the World Traveler who derailed everything.

I had seen and felt his power through my Seer's, but when he walked through the doors, I found myself unable to move. There was a pressure surrounding him, an air of superiority that kept me from assaulting him the moment my eyes met him. I already knew I was outclassed when he decimated the swarm I had sent after the sniper. But this was different.

He seemed like a king ready to to eviscerate anything in his path. "Huh... You know, this place is way fucking edgier in person." While I was inspecting him, he and the rest of his women were inspecting my throne room. Then his eyes went passed me, and I saw him inspecting my throne. It was like I wasn't even here.

That I wasn't even worth his time.

"Mine was better." That was the final straw. I focused all the magic I had gathered, and focused it onto him. A beam of sickly purple shot from my hands, and all he did to retaliate was raise his hand, and flare a small amount of his aura.

And it was enough.

My magic was rendered useless... "Huh... Anyway." Then in the blink of an eye, he was before me, fist cocked back, and then I lost my senses. I knew what that meant.

(Ah... My head has been destroyed.) Due to my curse, I could still think coherently without a brain, but that solved itself in moments. But then I noticed I had been looking at someone else.

The swordswoman. She had a malicious smile on her face as she gripped her blade, and I felt the desire to inflict pain practically roll off of her. "I'm good now, have fun mo lann." The swordswoman licked her lips at that, and the savage grin she sported gave me an idea of what would happen next.

"Oh I will. An immortal practice dummy is FAR too perfect for me." I tried to have my Grimm appendages swallow her, but she just cut them apart the moment they sprouted. And for once, I knew I was beaten.

The other intruders were talking, ignoring me, but I didn't have the time to address that. My focus was solely on the swordswoman creating armor over her limbs, constantly changing their shape, not settling on a single design. Because despite the threat that was their alpha, she was the one confronting me.

And she was prepared to hunt me.

{Maccillian's POV 10 minutes later}

"You know... I kinda feel bad." Rika snorted at that. We were sitting on windowsills, I had to make an extension with my aura since Shizuka wanted to cuddle, and just chilling as Saeko tortured Salem. She was experimenting with her armor, and a few other aura techniques that she was deciding if she should pursue or not. She settled on trying to make a copy of Yin's/Virgil's skill, and the aura wolves I could make.

"You punched her head off." I did, it was very enjoyable, but at the same time...

"Yeah... But I only did it once. Saeko's cut her fingers off... How many times now? I stopped paying attention a while ago." Which was true. Saeko had someone she could torture that wouldn't die, so she was like a kid in a candy shop at this point. She had started with just cutting into Salem, then started to make a method to her madness. She had her fun pulling out Salem's nails, then moved onto cutting her fingers off.

Rika looked over to Saeko, and a screaming/cursing Salem, and started blinking a bit. "Uh... Recounting the ones over the floor... somewhere in the 60's?" Huh...

"By the way, how're you not disturbed by that?" Rika just looked at me, rolled her eyes, and went back to looking out the window.

"If I didn't figure out how to get used to crazy cutting someone up, then I'd be an idiot. As long as she doesn't do it to people that don't deserve it, then I don't care."

"Mo lann! You satisfied yet?" I was bored, Rika was bored, Shizuka was too busy snuggling into me to care, and Saeko was the only one having some kind of fun. Speaking of Saeko, she kept the aura cuffs, not the kinky kind, she made on Salem, and turned to us. The black blood she had on her face, mixed with the bloodthirsty grin she had on her face would probably give someone a heart attack.

Saeko started humming, kicked Salem in the side when she tried to attack her, and shrugged. "I still have a few things to test, and I DO enjoy the fact she is still fighting. Clinging onto the hope that she'll somehow break free of her situation. That little gleam of hope in her eyes is adorable... I want to break it." Huh. Well damn.

"Carry on then." And so she did.

Though I turned to Rika after that, and when we made eye contact, we had a conversation with our eyes. 'I don't know why I feel even worse.' Rika hummed, and sent me a look.

'I don't. I'm just happy she's ours.' True.

'Anyway. Now what?' She shrugged, and I just laid my head against the windowsill. This was gonna take a while. (Atleast I have the comfiest weight on my chest in the multiverse.) Shizuka had fallen asleep at some point, I had no clue when, so she was my comfy.

{One hour later}

"Mo lannnnn are you done yet?" Did I care that I was whining? No. I was bored out of my mind. Rika was dealing with whatever Grimm came too close, and Saeko was STILL showing Salem there were worse things then death. Speaking of Salem, she hadn't made a peep after the 45 minute mark. I think she shut down at some point...

Though I think having your spine used as a mallet would do that to people.

Saeko turned to me again, and she actually looked satisfied. I ignored the fact she was covered in Salem gunk, and paid more attention to what she'd say. Saeko hummed, then nodded. "I do believe I am. But my lord, can I keep her? She's wonderful for relief." I just stared at her, and then I blinked when I realized she was serious.

"No mo lann, you cannot keep the immortal witch." She pouted at me, which should not have looked as cute as it did, but sighed a second later.

"Fine. I'll settle for something else later." A quick prayer to whatever the 'something else' was, and I got up. I made sure Shizuka didn't fall off of me, and handed her over to Rika. Seeing Rika hold Shizuka like she was a giant baby was hilarious.

We were finally done here and could go. The girls knew we were going to head out to our next world soon, so they had their cases packed and ready to go back in Atlas. We were still going to have a whole 'goodbye' thing with the Rose/Xiao-Long household, but we were finally ready.

With that done, we all left the castle, and when the girls got out of range, I did what I've wanted to do for a while.

Now since Saeko started going crazy in the Grimmlands, I ended up helping her. And because of that, I was back at full power.

And I was way stronger with the addition of Remnant's aura and my Sword of Damocles.

I went into my Werewolf Form, Wolf King's Wrath, flared my aura, making my Sword of Damocles hang upon the Grimmlands. Then I activated my trump.

My aura flared even more, and instead of encasing me in a cocoon, my aura flashed again, and the silver orbs in my Sword of Damocles started glowing just like I was. (Ok... This is new.) I let it go on, and just observed how my move manifested itself now.

My aura erupted into the sky, directly linking with my sword, then I saw the silver orbs empty themselves out, and sent a massive burst of aura down to me.

That's when it started to take shape. My body started changing, and I started becoming The One True Wolf.

The transformation took a minute, maybe more, maybe less. I didn't know or care. But I knew it was awesome.

After it was done, I knew I was bigger, by atleast double the previous size. I could FEEL the wind whipping around my form, the power surging through my veins was on another level. (It's like I'm a titan... From Attack on Titan... Weird I have to specify that.) That was how it was. I could feel everything now, and I could tell there was more I'd need to figure out about this move.

But now, now it was to nuke the fuck out of the Grimmlands. I turned my head up, decided not to howl since I didn't want to rupture my girl's eardrums, and ran towards the sky. It was kind of like I was one of the other Norse dogs. Skol or Hadi. I forgot which one chased the moon, but that's how I felt. And when I got high enough for my liking, I ran again.

Straight down. The wind whipped against my 'fur.' The feeling of crashing towards the earth made me feel like a meteor.

And as I got closer to Salem's castle, I laughed. Because I knew this was going to look and feel awesome. And it was giving me ideas of what I could do some other times when I got a full grasp on how my new attack worked.

The explosion that came from me impacting her castle just mad it even better. I hit the castle like a couple of Little Boys. The fucking massive cloud of dust that sprang up from the explosion could've been mistaken as a sand storm. It was crazy.

I also had this ringing in my ears that I wasn't sure would go away yet, but oh well. I got out of the crater, ran up to the sky with aura platforms, and noticed another new thing that wasn't mentioned. (My aura feels... Off... That used about... 70%? Hm...) I looked up to my sword, and blinked.

The orbs were all empty, but I could see a tiny bit of silver start to fill at the bottom. (So it recharges... Is it actually once a day now? Can I not spam it anymore? Did I get NERFED?!) I could feel my eye twitch at that thought. (Actually... I'm balanced now? Huh... Whatever. I can still blow up a continent.) Speaking off. When I got high enough, I could see the extent of the damage.

"Holy shit..." The Grimmlands were an island chain now, AT MOST. The biggest one was probably the size of Patch... "I'm so fucking broken." Then I got hit in the back of the head by something.

I checked to see what, and saw an irritated looking Rika, an almost drooling Saeko, and a VERY happy Shizuka, who seemed to like the explosion more then the damage. "Silver. What the fuck?" I might not have known it would be THAT strong, but I wouldn't tell her that in EXACT terms.

"Thought Remnant could use some new islands." Rika's eye twitched, and she made a few more bullets appear behind her.

"You could've WARNED us!" Ah.

"Well... You all came out just fine. That should count for SOMETHING... Right?" Rika materialized another 50 bullets behind her. Now I knew I wasn't in danger, but then again, this was a woman that has threatened to bite my dick off on multiple occasions.

So you could forgive me for starting to sweat bulle...- Yang was a horrible influence. "I'm just going to start running now." And run I did. I ignored the cheering from Shizuka and Saeko, and just ran.

It'd have to do.

Sure Salem was probably still alive, drifting somewhere, but that was Yin's problem.

{A few hours later, back in Atlas}

Being chased across an ocean by an annoyed Rika was an experience... 7/10, might do it again. Shizuka had enjoyed seeing it happen way more then I thought she would, and I think Saeko took notes at one point. (Not sure where that'll lead, but whatever.)

We were back at Atlas now, and were heading over to our room. Saeko had called Saya when we were in range, so she knew we were going to head out soon. I didn't know what they would be bringing, but there was always the fact that I'd find out later.

We landed on the roof, and made our way into the building. Rika had gotten her annoyance out, so she was fine. Saeko was happy and seemed enthusiastic at going to another world. And Shizuka was her relaxed and dopey self.

Getting to the room, I saw Saya had four different suitcases packed, probably one for each of the girls, and was just laying on the bed. Though she sat up when we got into the room. "Finally! What took you so long?" As one, Rika and I turned to Saeko, who just looked oh so innocent. But we knew.

Saeko saw us staring at her, and just raised a brow. "What?" She serious?

"Mo lann... Did you forget the hour of torture?" She blinked, stared at me for a bit, then shrugged.

"Not forget... More... Overshadowed. It's a little bit hard thinking of that when you crashed into Remnant like a falling star." Hm... The fact that I couldn't refute that kind of annoyed me. Cause she was right. When you see something like that, it kind of takes front and center of any thoughts you'd have.

"I mean, you're right... Ugh. Anyway." I turned to Saya, whose eye was twitching at the 'hour of torture' I brought up. "Everything set and ready to go ceann beag?" She waved a hand to the luggage, gave me her signature look, and I sighed. "Stupid question, I get it." She smirked at me, and got off the bed.

"I had Ironwood get us a bullhead. We'll be at Patch tomorrow. I already said bye to Weiss, gave her a parting gift, so I just have to say bye to Ruby." We nodded, the girls got their stuff, and we all started walking out of our room.

I was friends with Weiss, but not that close. I COULD'VE said bye to her too, giver her a hug and all that, but I didn't really need too. But at the same time... (A gift huh... I could do that.) And I had an idea on what I could give her. (If it works that is.) I had no clue about it, but after using TOTW, it got me thinking. (If it works for Grimm, it should work for this.)

That said, we all gathered in our room, talked about what I and Saeko did, and Saya talked about her findings.

And that was interesting... When I was paying attention.

Which I was! "It's strange. I understand the Mechashift weapon comparison, but there's more to it. If I was going to compare it to anything, I'd say it's the like our body. Werewolf aura were the bones and muscles, Remnant's aura was the skin, and now this 'K' aura are the internal organs and other systems. From what I've figured out, our constructs are more... I'll say complete. They're more complete now. Before, they were more 3D printed, but now they're essentially handcrafted." See! I WAS listening.

"Hm... How far do you think we could take this smarts?" Rika called people different nicknames for no reason. I mean, I gave people nicknames, but I was consistent about it.

Saya stared humming, and just seemed to zone out as she did. "From what I was able to learn today, I'd have to reserve judgment on that. Though if you ask me again in maybe a few months, I should have SOME kind of answer." She zoned back in after that, and we moved on. But that just made me sure on my gift for Weiss... (Fuck... I'm gonna end up giving the rest of them gifts too aren't I?)

I got soft, and I had no idea when the fuck THAT happened. (Fuck it. I'll call it character development and ignore it.) The wise thing to do. Yup.

That aside, I decided to head up to the roof, and start working on Weiss' gift. I was already back to full aura after a few hours, so I had more then enough to start working. "Hopefully I don't end up wasting my time... That'd fucking suck." And so I started working on my gift to Weiss.

I'd figure out something to give for Ruby, Yin and Yang later.

{Next day}

After I figured out what to do for Weiss' gift, I went back in and went to sleep with the rest of my girls.

A good nights sleep later, and making sure everything was packed, we left our room, and started making our way towards the bullhead Saya got from Ironwood. Though the procession we got was a little surprising. It was like we were ro...- (Well I am... And the girls are since they'll eventually be my wives... Holy shit. We're a royal fucking family.) I'll be damned.

"Saya... You didn't threaten the tinman with this right?" Saya snorted at Rika's question, and just shook her head.

"No. This is all him." We all nodded, and started making our way out. We passed by knights, some members of the Atlesian military, and eventually, we got to the end. Ironwood, Winter, and even Weiss were here. Perfect.

"Before any of you say anything, I got a gift for the Princess." Ironwood froze, since he was about to say something when I cut him off. It was funny in my opinion.

Winter and Weiss were just as surprised, but Weiss broke out of it when Saya tapper her. The girls knew I was working on gifts, Saya approved, and she was interested in if it would work.

"A gift? What is it?" I smirked, and started channeling my aura. I wasn't flaring it out, so my sword didn't pop up, but there was probably a pressure increase or something.

Anyway, back to my gift.

My aura started to form a construct, and I could tell both Weiss and Winter had an idea on what I was doing. They did it almost regularly after all.

My construct took form, and I might've used Saya's comparison when I was working on it. I'd thank her later if this actually worked for them. After another minute of working on my construct, it was done. Rika whistled, Shizuka squealed, Saya gave an inquisitive hum, and I saw Saeko grin. Saeko had ideas about this, and considering the world we were going to next, so did I.

To explain my construct, it was a 30ft(10 meters) tall gray wolf. I could make aura wolves before, so I knew the process, but this was different. This guy was the like a golem. It had a form, the base instincts of a wolf, pretty minor intelligence, but with the ability to learn, and all the advantages an aura construct has. Especially mine.

Enhanced durability, great power, this guy was probably faster then a sports car, and a bunch of other stuff like being able to take aura to sustain himself. He wasn't alive, but he was maybe 2/3rds of the way there. I could've gone further, but I wasn't going to sheer off a portion of my aura for him to keep. I liked Weiss, but not THAT much.

Speaking of Weiss. My construct looked down to her, laid on its stomach, and started staring. I had no clue what was in his mind, but I knew he shouldn't attack her suddenly. (I think. Though I could just get rid of him if he tries anything.) The rest of them would never know I had no clue if this guy would try to hurt them.

But seeing the way his tail started wagging after Shizuka practically jumped onto his back made me more confident he would be fine. "It feels so real! Not like Silver's fur, or ours, but still real!" I knew that, but I didn't make one for them so they didn't.

Weiss looked at him, and I could tell her mind was trying to figure out what she was going to do with a giant wolf. "W-what?" Or she just say it. I had a response for her though, so she was free from having a spiral into confusion.

"If it works for Grimm, it should work for him." I knew it rhymed, that's why I said it. Though I think the Schnee sisters were more interested in what I meant then in the fact it rhymed. Winter was about to try saying something, but I cut her off too. "Though don't think he'll lay down and die. You'll need to prove you can beat him." The Schnee sisters blinked, looked at my construct, and Weiss just spontaneously hugged me.

I remembered she had a thing for dogs, and the big guy was a giant dog. Though it was probably also for giving her something as awesome as him. (Because damn is he awesome... If only it didn't take me four hours to figure out how to make him smart.)

I returned the hug, then Weiss broke it off and coughed into her hand. "Thank you for the precious gift Mr. Maccillian." I rolled my eyes as she curtsied, and Saya laughed.

"You know he doesn't care if you do that, right?" Weiss looked at Saya, and smiled.

"Oh I know. But I should still show my manners at being given something like THAT." Saya hummed, then shrugged.

"True. Anyway." Saya hugged Weiss, and it was returned. "Try not to die before I see you again. Not sure when that'll be, so just don't die at all." Weiss scoffed at that.

"Who do you think I am? I am Weiss Schnee. I should be telling YOU that Saya." Now Saya scoffed at that.

"Then I'll be looking forward to the next time we meet Weiss." With that done, they broke off the hug, and smiled at each other. They were a funny image to look at. They were both the same height, Saya was still growing and being a Werewolf helped them all grow even just a small bit, but Saya was stacked while Weiss was the flatest one here.

Weiss twitched when I thought that, and I saw her look around. "I felt a disturbance." I held back my snort, and just let it pass.

From there, the rest of us said our goodbye's, Ironwood gave up trying to say things when I cut him off again, I liked to fuck with him, and he gave me a handshake. Rika gave him a salute, Shizuka smiled at him and the Schnee sisters, and Saeko gave them a respectful bow as we got onto the bullhead. Saya had already given them her goodbye, so we all just got onto the bullhead, and took off.

We set our things in the room we had, and just relaxed. Tomorrow, or atleast later today, we'd be in a new world.

And even I was excited. There was adventure to be had, and I'd damn well have it.

[NON-canon Omake. YEET! Maccillian's POV]

After dropping a fucking nuke on Salem, I kinda wondered what to do now. Sure, I blew up her castle and everything, but I didn't think this through. Salem wasn't really anything to write home about to any of us, but I wanted SOMETHING to brag about.

I mean, you can only use the 'I nuked someone' card so many times before it gets boring. "I mean... I don't really NEED to do something... But I feel the need to flex for some reason." The girls were out of range, so I was free to do whatever I wanted against Salem... But WHAT should I do, was the question. Actually.

~Quick question. Do YOU need to be the one that offs Salem?~ It was important since I had no reason to mess with Yin's quests.

[As long as you stay in the party, anything goes.]

~I can work with that.~ I looked back down to the still reforming Salem, and hummed. (What do I use though? I could turn her into squares for a while... Maybe do some fatalities for the fun of it... So wh...-) I had a eureka moment. Just had to make sure about something first.

~Yin?~

[Yes Macky?]

~What're the criteria for your quest against Salem?~ I heard a hum, and waited for her to respond.

['Eliminate, seal, incapacitate, or strip her of her powers.' Those are what I got.]

~Perfect.~

[... Should I even ask?]

~Kars.~ I got the equivalent of a mental buffering from her, then I heard nothing for a while. I was about to drop to the crater Salem was in, screaming hysterically at me, when Yin rebooted.

[Can you record it for me?] That was easy. Taking out my scroll, which was always in my pockets, which I chalked up to Werewolf magic, I opened it and started recording.

With that started, I jumped down to Salem, put my scroll against a rock, and skipped through the 'YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING' the 'PREPARE TO DIE' and the 'DIE' stages of her rant, and started working my gravity manipulation as I walked up to her. She was trying to kill me, with the Grimm hand things from the show, and other magic, but I just walked through it. I was at full power, Salem was a literal speck to me.

When I was up in her face, I grinned, grabbed her arm, and started spinning. When I felt like it was enough, I stopped, and YEETED Salem into the atmosphere. She was going, and going, "And she's GONE!" I could swear there was that comedic twinkle like she was Jessie, James and Meowth or something.

[It worked... Now send me the video, I HAVE to see this.] I laughed to myself, and went over to my scroll to do just that. Though I did have a thought.

"Maybe I should yeet people into space more often."