Wow oh wow its good to be back! Hello everyone, and welcome to Hero of Remnant: Veil of the Aether, the second installment of Hero of Remnant! Those of you who've been with me from the start, welcome back! For those of joining us just now, I highly recommend you back and read Hero of Remnant, but if you don't really want to, then remain here where you are, I'll do my best to catch you up to speed with some concepts only seen in Hero of Remnant. Now that we have that out of the way...again, welcome back. I'm really excited to start this new chapter of story through VotA (Veil of the Aether). It'll make up for some of the things lacking in its predecessor and overall, you'll have an amazing time reading.

New characters! New enemies! New creatures! New everything! A lot of things I couldn't do with the original will be seen here in VotA, like the introduction of some of these new characters and enemies. That's one example of the many exciting things you'll be seeing from now on.

One more thing take care of. DISCLAIMERS! Yeah, I know, but it has to be done. Just in case.

DISCLAIMER: Any and all characters and creatures of RWBY belong to RoosterTeeth and Mounty Oum. Any other characters and creatures not seen or represented in the show belong to me or their respective creators/authors. And if you read the summary and are thinking what you are currently thinking, no, the main character is no way, shape or form Dante from the Devil May Cry Universe. AT ALL. My OC Dante is of my own creation.

Now then, I've taken enough of your time already. So...lets dig in to the very first chapter of Veil of the Aether! Please enjoy!

Chapter 1: Home

A woman cloaked in black threaded upon the lifeless, dark terrain. Her ragged black skirt reached her ankles, slightly drifting in the dreary wind. Her abdomen remained exposed until it reached the end of her sternum, where her ragged black top covered her body, ragged torn sleeves covering her arms. She sported a torn black cloak as well that flapped in the wind behind her.

A pale hand, almost deathly white in color with black colored nails reached out from underneath the cloak to remove her hood, exposing her long, raven colored hair that now flowed freely. Her eyes opened, revealing the black sclerae she possessed that encircled her glowing red irises and black slit pupils.

This woman had come to speak with the ruler of this domain, the one who currently waged war against humanity with her innumerable and seemingly endless legion. And so from a distance, she halted her approach and gazed at the women who possessed the same eyes she did, silently watching as if she were studying her. The eyes of the one she would speak with did the same.

"At last...we meet one another…"

"Oh? How intriguing… None have stepped forth in this place for decades… Yet here you are. Tell me...why is it that you are here? To kill me perhaps?"

"No no, quite the opposite. I've come here to make a request. And...to offer a solution to a problem."

"What makes you believe that I am troubled currently?"

"Not currently. But you will be troubled in the future, should you allow this problem to go unsolved. Though at first glance it may seem un-problematic, it will become a thorn in your side later on. From what I've observed, you and I have the same desire."

"I see… So...what is it that you would ask of me, kindred spirit?"

"Temporary control is all. I wish to have the same power of 'creation' that you do. Though I am powerful, I do not have the luxury of creating a legion at my disposal. Should you give me the same power…I will not only remove this thorn from your side, but...I will destroy the World of Remnant in your stead."

"Destroy it you say? Is such a thing within your capabilities?"

"Indeed it is… My hatred for humanity is strong… It would be my pleasure to eradicate them. Even a being as great and powerful as myself cannot perform such a task alone. And in my belief, neither can you. I have both power and tools at my disposal. The final piece...is your power to create legions. Do this for me...and I will become your greatest ally, sworn to crush the hope of humanity." Said the devilish woman, gracefully bowing before the queen who controlled legions.

"Your proposal intrigues me… You ask for the ability to recreate my legion…yet you ask for nothing else. It's almost hard to believe that you would do this simply out of the kindness of your heart."

"As I said, our goals are aligned currently. When I achieve my goals, I will return so that you may remove this power. And from then onwards, we shall never see one another again."

"Why should I trust you?"

The woman in ragged black rose from the ground, her lips curling into a devilish smile.

"If there is one thing you must know, my kin and I never go back on our word. When we perform contracts, we strictly follow and enforce every aspect of our contracts until the very end when the terms have been met."

"It is clear to me you are not human. Otherwise, I would have eradicated you before you had the chance to speak a word. You are not the same as me...yet we are similar in more ways than one. Tell me...what kind of creature are you?"

"I..? I am an Entity of the Dark… A shadow that instills fear into the hearts of many… A force of nature that tears asunder… I...will be humanities reckoning… I am Scylix."

The woman laughed as she approached the woman in ragged black.

"You intrigue me Scylix, Entity of the Dark… Very well then… I will bestow upon you the power to control and create my legions. With it, you will set upon Remnant a terror equal in force to mine." Said the woman clasping hands with her new ally, a small burst of black and red Aura transferring to the new arrivals hand.

"My thanks… With this, our contract is sealed. I will remove an imminent threat and destroy Remnant in your stead so that it may be yours to control. After all is said and done, you will erase this power and we shall never cross paths again."

"You speak of this imminent threat to my plans, yet you never mentioned once who or what this threat is and what it entails."

"A boy..."

"I am to be concerned with one boy?"

"Not just any boy…" Said the woman in ragged black.

"This boy is an abomination of Light and Dark that hides behind human flesh and blood. Deep inside him is a power, which if truly discovered, can bring about our end."

"Ah...you speak of that boy… The one they call Dante… He truly has been a subject of immense interest as of late… It is a shame you believe him necessary to be removed."

"My apologies...but I know what it is you originally intended. He cannot be...corrupted. His heart is too human…"

"Human hearts are corrupted easily."

"But not all humans are so easily manipulated. Believe me when I say this is the only option. His death and the destruction of Remnant is something that can be accomplished through the force of one."

"One person is capable of such a task?"

"Indeed. And I believe you already know of whom I speak of."

The gaze of the queen that commanded legions narrowed, understanding who it was she spoke of.

"I see… So that's how you will go about it… You and I truly are similar in many respects… Very well then. Go forth with the power I have given you. Command my legions and bring forth ruin and sorrow. I have high hopes for you…Scylix."

And so the woman in ragged black known as Scylix marched forth, her plan now fully enacted. She would make her presence known. They would chase after the trail she would leave them. They would find her. And then...she would watch them fall...one...by...one.

(Bleach The Movie 4 OST - "Incantation" Part E)

The ruins of a shattered and broken kingdom were ablaze with white flame under the unending red sky; a deathly silence had set in. The flames that had been scattered across the land made no noise, they simply existed and slowly ate away at the stone littered throughout the desert of black sand.

Then...an echoing crash that quickly tore through the stones ruins, reaching towards the dunes of black sand to create a focused torrent of dust that traveled out for a few more meters, a constant sea of sparks emerging from within until the torrent traveled upwards into the sky.

From the torrent of dust emerged a smiling Scylix, who spread her arms and and legs outwards as six long black chains attached to six one foot long spear points emerged from behind her back, her feet meeting the stone of a nearby tower ruin.

Down below, a Shadow Skinned creature with glowing red eyes, skin bathed in white with nine white fox tails and white fox ears remained on the ground on all fours, it's maw of sharp teeth that bit into the flesh of the white skin opening wide to unleash a thunderous, animalistic, distorted roar before it quickly dashed forwards at blinding speed towards Scylix, a trail of black sand following behind it.

The Dark Entity giggled to herself before kicking off the base of the tower, moving at the same speed as the creature that ran towards her on its two legs, it's arms remaining at its sides. The crazed beast leapt off the ground towards Scylix, readying its clawed hand to strike while the Dark Entity converged it's six blade chains to its right side. Clawed hand and six blade points clashed momentarily as they passed by each other, the short contact resulting in a small cloud of sparks that was followed by a large gust of wind.

Both Scylix and the menacing being soon spun around mid air to face one another before they landed on the ground, only to dash at one another once again at invisible speeds to clash in the air. Scylix was currently on the defensive, using her hands, feet and chains to block the combined attacks from the Shadow Skinned creatures own hands, feet and nine tails that dangerously whipped about and made stabbing motions.

There was an opening that allowed the creature to use six of its nine tails to counter Scylix's six chains, the other three used to pierce through both of the Dark Entities hands and left leg. The creature unleashed another ghastly distorted howl, only to be met with a stomp kick to the face from its opponent's free right leg, the kick sending the creature rolling backwards through the air and into one of the nearby towers.

The distorted creature rolled and tumbled on its back down the side of the tower, tearing it apart as it rolled while Scylix landed on the same side, quickly running down it to meet the creature. The Shadow Skinned creature used its nine tails to pierce the remaining mass of the tower behind it, halting it to a quick stop before it let out a distorted grunt and violently slammed both fists down into the tower, sending a powerful shockwave towards Scylix along with numerous large chunks of stone from the now shattered structure.

The force of the shockwave along with the chunks of stone was enough to force Scylix backwards a considerable distance away from the tower as a large smoke screen clouded her vision. From outside the smoke, the Shadow Skinned creature made a dash towards the Dark Entity, attempting to use all nine of its tails to run her through, only for Scylix to quickly turn into a blur of black and reappear a few meters above the creature.

Scylix dashed up into the air past the smoke screen and quickly looked around for her opponent to find that her opponent had come to her, landing both of its clawed feet on the Dark Entities backside. She tried to retaliate with all six of her chains, but their blade points were stopped by the tips of six of the crazed beast's tails, allowing it to dish out bloody retribution.

It quickly grabbed hold of Scylix's arms with its hands, and then kicked off her back as it violently pulled, instantly ripping off the Dark Entities arms. To add insult to injury, the menacing being spun in the air once and slammed both of Scylix's torn off arms atop her head, sending her plummeting into the desert of black sand.

The result was an explosive shockwave accompanied with a large amount of the black sand, Scylix emerging from the black dust cloud rolling rapidly on her back. She recovered mid-roll, landing on the balls of her feet as she skidded backwards, stopping shortly after as her black blood flowed from where her arms used to be.

The Shadow Skinned entity landed in a low squat on the ground a few meters away, still holding onto the arms before it tossed them away as it stood up, it's glistening white form leaning forwards, waiting to attack.

All the while, Scylix stared back at the menacing creature with a crazed smile, giggling to herself as both of her arms grew back within the next instant. Her six bladed chains formed a sphere of sorts around her, the blade points meeting together in a circle formation in front of her chest. The wind picked up in front of the Dark Entity as six streaks of black Aura outlined in dark purple converged towards the center of where the six blade points met, slowly creating a large growing sphere of her Aura.

The creature made its nine tails converge together outwards in the front to form a sphere, the tips of its tails meeting together in the same fashion as Scylix's blade points, nine streaks of flaming white Aura outlined in black converging at the meeting point of the tail tips, forming a sphere of its Aura that grew more quickly and larger than Scylix's own.

Both of their spheres of Aura burst forth into massive beams of Aura, that when met, crashed into one another like ocean waves, each struggling to overpower the other. Shortly after, the menacing entities beam easily toppled Scylix's, resulting in explosive blast of Aura that destroyed a massive portion of the surrounding area within seconds, large amounts of black sand flowing freely in the sky that had been picked up by the violent wind currents.

Scylix took to the skies once more, only to find the creature crashing into her from above. For the short time they fell, the creature let out a quiet distorted growl, a small bout of white flame outlined in black emerging from its open maw.

The crazed beast tossed up the Dark Entity into air above it, quickly spinning around a delivering a crushing kick to Scylix's stomach, sending her flying consecutively through three nearby towers. The Shadow Skinned entity brought forth all nine of its tails, each tail tip individually charging up small spheres of its Aura before they quickly shot forth into smaller beams of glowing white Aura outlined in black, tearing through the black desert until they converged upon Scylix's crash site. Numerous dome snapped explosive bursts of white flame quickly followed after the beams' trails, hot white fire and black sand being all that could be seen for miles on end.

Friends watched from afar as the wind blew past them like a powerful storm. Violent quakes riddled the ground in sifting depressions, quaking all around them as they stared fearfully into the dreary skies, watching helplessly at fight that shook the land beneath their feet. A solemn shout carried itself outward, trying to reach the fighters in the sky but falling just short of them, the only one to call out the true name of the Shadow Skinned creature. But the voice remained unheard amidst the howling wind and tremors; all other noise was silenced by a ghastly, distorted roar that thundered throughout the landscape, overtaking both noises of destruction, the one voice from the surface falling into silence.

(End Song)

In the blackness of night, his eyes snapped opened as his left hand quickly reached for his sheathed longsword and rapidly lashed out backhand style. He soon realized he had hit nothing. He felt the cold sweat slowly drip down the side of his head, his bright sky blue eyes relaxing soon after as he reached behind him and placed his weapon back in its sheath, leaning his back towards the large tree he slept against previously, staring at the campfire of white flame that crackled and burned in front of him.

Dante closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself, using the sleeve of his left hand to wipe away the sweat from his forehead before running a hand through his chin length white hair, the front bangs settling towards the left side of his face soon after, covering only part of his left eye. The teens gaze trailed to his left index finger, staring at the black ring on his finger.

It was a fairly simple thing really. The rectangular stone set in the metal band was obsidian black with numerous diamond shaped patterns cut into the stone. In the center of the stone was a small white metal shield crest with a black background that had the letter "A" in white colored metal etched into the black background of the shield crest. The rectangular metal surrounding the ring stone, as well as the metal band, was colored pure black with intricate white colored etchings carved into the band. Every now and then, when he stared at the ring, he couldn't help but feel it empowered him in some way, despite the ring not containing the power it once did.

His gaze soon shifted up towards the night sky past the seemingly endless amount of colossal trees, gazing at twinkling stars above. It was a welcome sight after the long trek both he and Inuba made throughout the day. The next town over was only a few hours away, and so Dante decided to stop around the time night began to settle over the last rays of light, both he and Inuba resting in the makeshift camp ground they made earlier.

Thinking of his partner Inuba, he looked to his left to find her still sleeping peacefully with her legs brought in towards her chest. Her pure white hair that was near shoulder length, and slightly messy, gave off a small shimmer like the white campfire that lit up their campsite, her white fox ears that were folded against her head twitching slightly as she slept peacefully. He quickly took note that he had been cloaked by the one grey blanket they possessed.

Considering he was the one who slept first, he only had one guess as to how this happened. Inuba's kindness was always something the teen appreciated greatly. Although sometimes, he felt it was unnecessary. Even though she was kind enough to wrap him in the blanket, it left her without anything to cover herself from the cold night. The only thing she had was the sleeping mat and pillow.

"Honestly… I keep telling her that some of these things are unnecessary…" He said removing the blanket from his persons and draping it over her peacefully sleeping form.

The Kitsune nuzzled her face in the new source of soft warm, slightly stirring as she adjusted herself. Dante made an attempt to stand up, only to find himself anchored. Looking down, he saw his partners fluffy white fox tail wrapped around his waist, keeping him close to her. Dante chuckled slightly at the sight, but currently, he wanted to leave and take a short walk to relax his mind. But how would he escape from the fluffy grasp of Inuba's fox tail? Only one idea came to mind currently.

The teen quickly placed his left hand on her tail and ran his hand through the fur, running it deeply through the softness of her tail as he massaged it in a methodical pattern, which resulted in her tail squirming about wildly. The tail would not release him, forcing him to quicken the pace until finally the tail unraveled itself from his waist, allowing him freedom to stand. Even with his release, Inuba's fox tail continued whipping about, only at a slower pace as it pattered against Dante's sleeping mat.

The teen grabbed hold of his white button up coat with black trimming, where the tail end that was split in two reached his calves and put it over the grey collared shirt he wore. The tails flapped in the cool breeze, revealing the inner part of the coat that was colored jet black. After some strenuous effort in taking his entirely bandaged right arm out of his black sling to put it through the right sleeve of the coat, followed by putting the arm back into the sling, Dante quickly buttoned up the three shiny black buttons on his coat, where it wrapped around his entire body.

He soon moved his hand down the two rows of three buttons, then fixed the black lapels and collar of his coat, allowing him to finally grab hold of Anvil, his weapon, and invisibly attach the sheathed longsword on the left side of his back. When this was done, he quickly gave his grey jeans a quick pat down before putting on his black running shoes with white soles, thus allowing him to begin his midnight stroll.

He stopped momentarily in front of the thin, nearly invisible, dome shaped barrier that surrounded their campsite before easily passing through, leisurely walking down the snowy road that flowed under the the thin rays of moonlight that peeked through the trees, moving towards the lake both he and Inuba spotted near their campsite earlier in the day.

The teen brushed past a few bushes and stared at the center of the lake, seeing the moon's pale reflection. Crouching down, Dante stuck his left hand in the waters of the lake, sifting it around playfully until he took it out and leaned backwards to sit down.

Shifting his head to the side, he saw a figure approach from behind, the figure resembling his Shadow Skinned self, which had very thin segmented armor layered over its entire body from neck to toe, long horns protruding from the side of its head that bent inwards before curving outwards slightly, white Aura glowing from the gaps in the armored hide, and glowing white perfectly round circles for eyes. Currently, it had no visible mouth. The Entity sat next to Dante, repeating the same action the teen did only a few moments ago by placing its hands in the lake and sifting them around.

"You seem troubled…" it spoke in a hollow, echoing voice

"Somewhat… Just a nightmare is all…"

"Nightmares huh… I thought you stopped having those."

"So did I. Guess they're not completely gone yet."

"It's hard to believe it's only been six months since everything happened… How slowly time goes by…"

"We can only move forward and hope for the best at this point. And, well, hope to find the people responsible."

"We both know Cinder Fall and her lackeys are responsible for the terror unleashed upon Vale six months prior."

"Even so, I have feeling they weren't acting on their own. Not entirely at least."

"Puppets to a higher power… Disappointing…" said the Entity with a sigh.

"I wouldn't go underestimating them just yet. While Emerald and Mercury are weaker than us, don't forget that Cinder now possess the full power of the Fall Maiden. Last time we fought Cinder, and when I say we I mean you, we couldn't gauge her strength properly given the...situation at the time."

"You don't possibly mean to suggest that the power of these Maidens is stronger than ours…"

"If I have to be honest, I can't really say. We've heard rumors and legends at most. And we technically had a chance to test out a Maidens abilities. But it was a really one-sided battle considering the EndStage affliction we had at the time. So next time we see her, we have to give it everything we've got."

"That much I understand… It's very likely we'll defeat her when the time comes. After all, we have improved since then." Said the Entity removing its hands from the lake.

It soon turned its gaze to Dante as it stood.

"And...your arm will hopefully be healed fully by then." It said pointing to Dante's entirely bandaged right arm that was kept in a black sling.

Dante tried to clench his fist, but was barely able to curl his fingers; they felt extremely numb. It was then the pain finally set in, a burning pain that traveled throughout his entire arm, giving off a silent hissing sound.

"It would seem the fox's treatments aren't as effective as they seem to be…"

"Inuba is doing her best to heal my arm. Her Cleansing Flame wasn't exactly meant for this kind of damage. But she's adjusting to it, and her treatments are slowly making it better. I couldn't so much as move my right arm, let alone my fingers last month. Thanks to Inuba, I can slightly move them now."

"Using your Shadow Skin, in other words, the appearance I currently possess, for only your right arm allows you to fully use it, should the need arise. But, each time you use it for your right arm, it sets back your recovery slightly. Despite the immortality you possess, even you will have your hand forced. Pun not intended mind you." said the Entity, earning a chuckle from Dante.

"Which is why I'll try to end fights quickly. That way I don't need to Shadow Skin my right arm and get scolded by Inuba afterwards."

"Understand that I will assist you at anytime. Remember that as you go about your journey."

With those final words, the Entities body dissolved into black, ash like substance and scattered in the cool breeze of night, leaving the teen by himself once more. He took a final glance at the shattered moon up in the sky before standing up and heading back towards the campsite, willing to attempt sleeping again.

"Sweet suffering succotash he's fast! He nearly took off my hand! If I didn't use my Semblance, he would have cut my hand…" Said a cloaked figure standing atop a mountain cliff overlooking Dante and Inuba's campsite for the night, shaking her hand off a few times.

"Well, to be fair, it would have been your own fault, sister. They're out in the woods at nighttime. Even if the barrier that ms. Fox put up will turn any Grimm that comes into contact with it into ash, it'll block out any and everything else that isn't Grimm. But given the capabilities of your Semblance, you could easily slip in and out of her barrier, especially since it's not multilayered." Said the young man next to her, wearing the same garb as she did.

"Either way, close call. You think she's going to be mad at us for going ahead of schedule?" asked the young girl.

"Very. But like you, I don't exactly agree with her idea. Which is why I'm here in the first place. Otherwise, I would have stayed where we were."

"Awww… What's wrong? Having second thoughts already?" She asked mockingly.

"Nothing of the sort. I'm just slightly concerned whether or not our actions will have consequences."

"So what? We'll deal with it later."

"Do you ever care to think ahead? Even if it's just for once?"

"I'm not big on the whole planning thing like you are. Besides, what does it matter if you can crush your opponents almost instantly?"

"Not all of your battles will be so easy. One of these days, there will be someone who's more than a match for you. Even with your Semblance."

"But~ That doesn't mean I won't be able to take them down in the end."

The young man sighed, knowing his argument would be in vain. She wouldn't listen to him. At least, not entirely.

"Big day's in a few hours. Are you excited?" She said bumping her elbow into her companion's side.

"Excitement isn't the word I'd use… I'm...anxious if anything."

"I guess I'm the same way…" Said the young girl a bit more calmly as she fell down into a squat, resting her chin in both hands.

"As long as you stay calm, everything will go according to plan."

"I'm always calm."

"There have been multiple instances where you've proven that statement to be incorrect."

She reached out and punched the young man in the shin with a cracking dull thud, which surprisingly didn't force him to jump or cry out in pain. Instead, he stood as though nothing happened.

"Then again, you've never thrown a real temper-tantrum. At least you have that to be proud of."

"Wow~ Such an amazing accomplishment!" Said the young girl sarcastically.

"You know what I meant." He said sitting down next to her.

"Sooooo… What now? We just...wait until the sun rises or something?"

"We wait until they enter the town tomorrow. After they've concluded whatever business that leads them there, we'll be following and observing them from afar. When they leave the village, we make contact with them."

"Got it…" her voice came out in a soft murmur, which was something her companion took notice of.

"You seem a bit distressed."

"Not distressed. Just...puzzled. Puzzled, right? That's the word?"

"I believe so."

"He doesn't need to sleep. So why does he do it?"

"To retain a sense of normality I suppose… We wouldn't know unless we asked him."

Dante's eyes slowly opened up to greet the day, using his only good arm to block out the rays of light for a few moments until his eyes adjusted. It was still slightly dark, which told the teen it was early in the morning.

"Good morning Master. Did you sleep well?"

His head jolted up, moving towards the direction of the voice. His eyes met the crimson red eyes of his Kitsune partner Inuba, who stood in front of him holding a cup of one his favorite beverages, green tea. Using his back, he pushed himself off the tree he leaned himself against, standing up to take the cup in his left hand.

He then remembered her question, his mind briefly flashing images of the dream he had.

"Okay I guess." Said the teen taking a sip. "How long have you been up?"

"Not long. Perhaps for twenty minutes now..? I didn't bother to check the time after I changed my clothes."

Dante's eyes trailed towards Inuba's direction for a few moments when she turned to prepare some tea for herself. A few words came to mind every now and then when he glanced at her. Alluring. Endearing. Stunning. Captivating. She was all these and more.

Silky smooth, near-shoulder length white hair that shimmered slightly. Beautiful eyes, framed by long lashes, that were a crimson red that seemingly brightened the world. Soft, elegant lips. Smooth, porcelain-like skin. A beautifully slender figure. Curvy in all the right places. Ample breasts that were perky with a natural bounce, but still firm. It was as if she represented the picture of perfection.

Her white fox ears and white fox tail only seemed to add more to her already alluring form.

Dante had to shake his head around a few times. Any further thoughts would have been dangerous for him to think of. He turned his head to face his partner again, taking a quick glance at what she wore today. Yet again, she wore the same outfit as every other day, which told him she was really fond of it, especially since it was all she wore and that she had extra pairs of the same clothing.

Inuba's choice of clothing was fairly simply, but unique in the sense that it was a style that would only suite her.

She wore a sleeveless white collared shirt, the collar colored black, with a zipper zipped down to the center of her chest. Underneath, she also wore a sleeveless skin tight black shirt.

Inuba also wore white detached sleeves with black trimming that went slightly above her elbows, while sporting skin tight black sleeves underneath, where the under-sleeves wrapped around her palm and backhand and banded around her middle fingers. She also wore a sort of black sash around her waist, where on the right side of her waist, the sash's ends dangled freely.

Inuba wore a pleated skirt similar in fashion to the reaper in red they both knew, Ruby Rose, where the skirt ended at the center of her thighs, but a bit tighter, and had wavy white patterns across the skirt. In addition, she also wore white thigh high socks with black bands at the ends. For footwear, she sported a simple pair of white shoes with black laces and black soles.

"Went straight for the tea… How like you…" he said as Inuba sat next to him

"I'm sorry, should I have not done so?" She asked slightly concerned as her fox ears folded against her head.

"No, I didn't mean it like that… It's just...you're devoting a lot of your time to taking care of me nowadays… More so now compared to when we were in Primordial… It's nice… Really nice of you. Thank you."

Inuba's fox ears perked up, her fox tail straightening out momentarily before whipping about wildly as she turned her reddened face away from him.

"T-There's no need for you to thank me Master… I...I am simply performing my duties as your Familiar…"

"You know, I never really liked those terms… Servant. Familiar. Master. We may have our souls linked to one another, but that doesn't entirely make one person the master and the other the servant. True as it may be that the circumstances at the time made it that way, I never once considered you as a servant or someone below me. In fact, I always thought of you as an equal. Rather than that, an amazing and kind-hearted person. You don't have to do the things you do. Defending me all the time… Taking care of me to this extent…" Dante said nodding his head towards his right arm in the sling.

His voice soon took on a softer tone.

"It's all unnecessary. Yet you do it anyway. For my sake...and anyone else in need."

"Master…"

"I really wish you would just drop that term… But I know how attached you are to it, so I won't force you to drop it. Just try to use my name once in a while."

There's a reason I haven't done so, Master... I know how much you want me to simply call you by name...but…

"I understand Master. I will try to do so from now on."

He took a sip of his tea at set it down, saying "Thanks. So then-"

Before he had the chance to say anything else, an excruciating burning sensation traveled throughout his entire left arm, forcing him to grit his teeth as he held back a cry of pain.

"Master!"

Inuba immediately dropped everything she had in her hands at the moment and quickly but gently removed his right arm from his sling. Her white flames burned away the bandages without burning his skin. Beneath the bandages, pitch black skin could be seen that ran all the way up to the joint of his upper arm and shoulder as he clutched it in pain. Even so, there were numerous small "spots" located all over the blackened skin, revealing the teens smooth, pale skin underneath.

Inuba's white flames blanketed the blackened arm, and as they crackled, ever so slowly, the patches in the black skin began to grow larger, as if the blackened skin was being healed.

The pain receded, and with it, came slightly more functionality with his arm and fingers. This was only slight however. He still couldn't fully curl his fingers, much less flex his arm all that much.

Inuba's flames soon calmed, but did not recede. Instead, they became a fresh new pair of bandages that covered his fingers, hand, and entire right arm.

"Wow! That's impressive! When did you learn to do that?"

"It took some time but...considering my Spells were focused on the utilization of Magic Energy, making use of them through Aura has proven rather...difficult. It's as though I'm converting, or rather, rewriting the basis of my Spells in order for them to be used with my Aura. Strangely enough though...Aura seems to be a more effective and efficient way of usage of energy to power my Spells and other techniques. It's as if Magic Energy was just a prerequisite, or a substitute, which makes me think-"

"That Aura is the prime and actual source of power behind our techniques and your Spells. My memory is a bit hazy, but I distinctly remember someone telling me that Aura is actually the refined and purest form of our power. In other words, our true power."

"If that is the case, then maybe the power you posses currently wasn't a gift, but rather your true power instead?"

"My old powers acting as a substitute for the ones I currently posses… That would make sense. I do feel as though I have...more control."

He looked to his side to see Inuba, holding his arm, a look of worry written across her face.

"What's wrong? Is the treatment not working anymore?"

"No, it's working…but...albeit, very slowly. What's troubling me is that my treatment, Cleansing Flames, only seems to work while you're suffering an attack. If anything else were possible...I would have stayed awake continuous days and nights treating your arm until it was fully healed…"

"Don't worry about it all too much. You're doing what you can and that's what matters most. Sure it sucks having to go through an attack, and that your Cleansing Flames only seems to work then, but you're trying to help as much as possible. So don't feel so down about it."

"You're far too kind Master…"

I wonder whether she's right or not… Past actions and recent ones make me question that whole idea entirely. I try to be as nice as possible, but...am I actually as nice as people see me?

Inuba's fox ears folded against her head, her eyes taking on a more sorrowful glance as her grip on his arm grew tighter. Though most of the feeling in his right arm was gone, he most certainly felt her grip, however slight.

"Is something wrong?"

"N-No, nothing… I was simply lost in thought for a moment…"

"Right...well, either way, we need to pack up and head for the village to restock our supplies and so forth. Maybe even unwind and relax for a bit. I'll start with the bedmats." He said before finishing the last of his tea, rising up to pack their materials.

Inuba went to work packing the rest of the supplies, stopping momentarily to look back at Dante.

You are kind Master… Kinder than any person I've ever met. Even so...you've been hurt the worst and suffered the most. Though you may act on the outside as though it doesn't affect you in the slightest...deep down...you feel such great pain… If only…

Her fingers clutched tighter into the fabric of the pack in her hands, her skin growing hot.

If only-!

Inuba smelt something burning, realizing she had slightly burnt her pack as she panicked and patted out the white flames she accidentally brought forth.

"Man...you're kind of out of it today, aren't you?"

"I-I'm so sorry Master!"

"No worries. See?" He said pointing back to the pack that had now looked as though it sustained no burns.

"The packs are made of Empyrean Weave and Calcified Dust, the same materials my coat is made of. Same with anything else that's of fabric material that we currently own. It'll basically fix itself and clean itself. Though it doesn't take care of smell, so it's necessary to wash it still."

"I see… That's a relief…"

"Well, I have everything else packed. You?"

"Same for myself."

"Alrighty then. Let's get going."

Dante and Inuba entered through the village gates and took a quick look around. Numerous homes, stores and pubs, practically every building in sight incorporated stone with wooden homes that resembled log cabins. The streets were bustling and booming with both humans and Fauna. Busy vendors, running and laughing children, people walking side by side one another peacefully.

Busy vendors, running and laughing children, people walking alongside one another peacefully. It was almost as if nothing bad ever happened in this village.

"Alright. So obviously those stone walls aren't the only thing responsible for keeping out the Grimm. Considering I only have the ability to see through illusions that I can confirm are illusions, I can't see whether or not magic or anything else was used. But you can. So, what do your special fox eyes see?" Finished the teen a deep voice, earning a giggle from Inuba.

In the next second, the Kitsune girls round pupils turned into slit pupils, black sclera blanketing the white to surround her crimson red irises.

"There is an incantation that has been placed on the walls that repels Grimm of all varieties, but only so. It doesn't kill small to mid-sized Grimm or turn them into ash like my barriers do." she said as her eyes returned to their normal form.

"Either way, the barrier they put up is keeping them out."

"Not entirely…"

"What do you mean?"

"The barrier is old. Very old. There are extensive cracks and even some broken areas of the barrier where the stone in the wall was very likely rebuilt after a Grimm incursion. We should find the person in charge of the village and speak to them about any attacks and see if there's anything we can do."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

The duo walked together up the village streets, leading up to a large stone structure on the top of the hill. Six minutes of walking was all it took to reach the top.

"State your business boy and Faunus girl."

"We've come to speak person in charge of this village. We think you may have problem with some Grimm. Either now or in the near future."

"Oh really? And what can two children do?"

"Correction. A Huntsmen and Huntress stand before us." Spoke an older voice.

The duo looked behind the guard to see an elderly man walk towards them, fixing his circular rimmed glasses.

"It's alright. Let them through."

The guard reluctantly moved aside, allowing them to move through.

"So sorry about that. Please, right this way."

Eventually their walk took them to rather spacey office room, a window overlooking the entire village, even the gate.

Is that how he knew we were outside?

"A Huntsmen and a Huntress… How peculiar…"

"Oh, we're not a full fledged Huntsmen or Huntress. Actually, she and I were in training until recently."

"I see. So the both of you come from Vale then. Such a shame to hear about what happened recently. But if Vale is under siege, should not the both of you be there to assist?"

"We're on a separate mission. One of our allies found a lead that leads us to Haven. My partner and I have been traveling on the road to make it to Haven and see what there is waiting for us. We've been stopping at villages and towns on the way to rest and restock our supplies, as well as helping out with whatever we can. That includes threats involving Grimm."

"So you noticed the barrier… How peculiar… Only a very rare few are able to see that there is an actual barrier."

"That's thanks to my partner. She's...special."

Inuba jolted up words a bit as she lowered her head slightly, her tail whipping about happily.

"I see… What is it that you ask in return?"

"We only ask that you help provide lodgings for the night. That's all."

"You two are a peculiar pair indeed. Most people would ask for Lien for such a task… Very well then. Just last week, we suffered an attack from a pack of Beowolves as well as an unknown type of Grimm. The barrier alone should have been enough to repel them...but the new-type caused the damage you most likely spotted in the barrier, allowing them to run through. We managed to avoid any casualties, remaining with only a few wounded. But should whatever made the gap in barrier return… Well, I fear for the safety of the villagers."

"The barrier isn't a simple matter to fix, is it? Especially since you put up the barrier."

"I am fairly old young man... My power isn't as strong as it was fifty years ago when I put up the barrier. Performing such a task would very likely kill me. Therefore...if you say you will help us, then please, do so."

"When the task is complete, we may actually be able to do something about the barrier. I do specialize in making them myself."

"Well then… How unexpected… Very well. If you can do so, then we will provide you something extra. Along with free lodgings for your stay, we will also restock your supplies, free of charge."

"We understand. Thank you for your time." Said Dante before nodding towards Inuba.

The duo soon left the office and went the way the came, leaving the large structure.

"We should talk to the village milita and see if they have anything leads on where we can find the pack. After that, we head out and come back within the hour. Sound good?"

"Of course, Master."

"Oh, one thing. I know it's your thing, but try not to call me 'Master' out in public. People might get the wrong idea. In more ways than one."

Whatever Inuba thought of in the next few seconds was enough to make her face go red before she responded.

"Y-Yes! Of course!"

"Good. Then let's go!"

The last of the Beowolves crashed into and bounced off a nearby tree, allowing Dante to finish off the creature with a leaping downwards slash from the air, cutting it in half down the middle. It's body soon faded into nothingness. The teen turned to see Inuba approaching him.

"Finished on your end?"

"Yes. But there was no sign of whatever Grimm caused the damage to the barrier. It must have been a mid-sized Grimm, such as a Deathstalker or a Nevermore."

"They would have spotted either one of them and would have told us if it was one or the other. Whatever did that must have been of a smaller size. From what you've told me, the size of the gap was at least thirteen feet tall compared to the rest of the wall, which is twenty feet tall. The village elder said this creature of Grimm was unknown. If it were any other mid-sized Grimm that we know of currently, they would have told us."

"Which means this must be a new variety…" Said Inuba.

As she said this, the trees behind them began to fly up in the air as small tremors began to approach them. The duo leapt out of the way of the incoming creature, watching the smoke clear away.

The creature stood at thirteen feet tall, and had long, thick animal legs that had large bones white hooves. The short fur covering it's legs and massive humanoid body and thick arms was colored black. It's head was like that of a bull, covered in a bone white mask with glowing red eyes. It's white horns were long and fairly thick. It's backside was armored, and had four triangular vents.

"So it was a new type of Grimm. A Minotaur Grimm at that… Keep an eye out. If this thing is anything like the Minotaurs we've faced, it'll-"

The Minotaur Grimm roared loudly before beginning to bull rush the duo once again, only for them to dodge out of the way and let it charge through a few more trees of the forest.

"Try and charge at us." Said the teen raising his sword.

The creature spun and charged at Dante full speed. The teen was ready to dodge to the side, but the creature changed its tactics and leapt up in the air raising its fists up into the air as it slammed them down. Dante leapt backwards, the creatures fists crashing into the earth to create a small crater.

That things pretty strong… I wonder…

Dante immediately lunged forwards and swung his blade, only to have it stop at its skin.

As I thought… It's skin is highly durable…

The Minotaur Grimm pushed back Dante and attempted to take a few swings at him with its fists, mixing in a few kicks with its hooves and even some stabs at the teen with its horns. Inuba appeared in a blur of white above the creature, her katana turned upside down and cloaked with her white flame. Her blade managed to pierce the creatures hide, but only halfway before it swung it's arm behind it to hit her, forcing the Kitsune girl to kick off its back and take her blade with her.

Nice going Inuba! She saw that my weapon didn't cut through it and cloaked her sword in her Flames! Since the Flames she produces is transduced from her Aura, it not only has the property of Fire, but also Aura. Which means Aura infused attacks work!

The teen sheathed his sword and extended his hand outwards, a small burst of white Aura outlined in black forming in his hand. His Aura then quickly formed into a replica of his Longsword, the teen then charging in as the Minotaur Grimm quickly spun around and leaned forward, black ooze bursting out of the vents on its back to propel it forwards at greater speed than it originally moved.

Dante was in close proximity of the creature and spun out of the way, lashing out with great force to cut through its arm, separating it from the creatures body. The Minotaur Grimm staggered forwards to a halt. It's glowing red eyes focused on Dante.

"You're wide open…"

The creature of Grimm's eyes widened, as if it understood what the teen had just said. Before it could react, Inuba had dropped down and lobbed off its other arm with one fiery swing, leaping forwards towards Dante seconds later to avoid it's kicking hoove.

"It looks as though you've made him angry…" Said Dante.

"I'm not really concerned currently with how it feels…" Said Inuba.

"Right… How about we end this right now?"

Dante's Aura Longsword disappeared out of sight, allowing him to extend his left hand towards the creature that scrapped its hooves behind it, ready to charge again. Before it took off, two Aura Greatswords dropped down from above diagonally and pierced through the creatures thighs, pinning it to the ground to prevent it from moving.

Inuba dashed forwards at blinding speed, sword at her side as she leapt towards it to cover the gap quicker. With a single strike, her pure white blade tore through the creature of Grimm's neck and cleaved its head from its shoulders. As its head flew in the air, it dissolved into nothingness as its body crashed into the floor, following suite afterwords.

"Nice work partner. That takes care of all of the Grimm in the area surrounding the village. Let's head back."

"Of course, Master." She said sheathing her weapon, quickly running to his side to join him.

"Nice work with figuring out that Aura would cut through its skin. Pretty clever of you."

"O-Oh, it was nothing! It was just a random thought I had after seeing that your sword didn't cut through its skin immediately…"

"Well, we discovered a supposedly new type of Grimm and figured out its weakness in one go."

"Why supposedly?"

"Well, Professor Port was our Grimm Studies educator and he never did once mention a Grimm Minotaur. So the only assumptions to make really is that either he never got to telling us or it really is a new mid-sized type. Either way, we know how to deal with it should we come across it."

The teen took a quick look around, as did his partner. Silence.

"Doesn't seem like there's anymore more incoming. I guess we're done. Let's head back and-"

Before he could speak another word, Dante's entire body instantaneously became covered in pitch black Aura, which formed a second skin over his clothes. The black flesh of this "second skin" was segmented like armor, covering the entirety of his legs, body, back, neck, shoulders and left arm. Parts of his armored hide had gaps that glowed with white Aura.

His white hair was gone, and was instead replaced with long, thin, flat black horns that protruded from the side of his head, the horns bending inwards before slightly curving outwards, pointing up towards the sky while slightly pointing backwards.

His mouth was now a maw of numerous thin black teeth that was a part of the Shadowy Skin, the inside of his mouth glowing hot white. His eyes were simply perfectly round circles that glowed white. His eyes turned into half circles in order to display some form of annoyance, or anger.

"Master, what's wrong?!"

"I don't know!" He said in a hollow, echoing voice. "My Shadow Skin activated on its own!"

Shortly after, his Shadow Skin quickly cracked apart, dissolving in the air like black ash. Then again the skin reformed, then deformed a few more times before coming to a complete halt.

"Wait a minute… I know what this is…" he said in his normal voice.

Inuba's head immediately turned towards her Master.

"This… This is Resonance…"

The Ktisune girls eyes widened momentarily before both she and her Master went back to back, their eyes scanning the areas ahead of them.

"See anything?" Asked Dante silently.

"Nothing… But I'm detecting two fairly powerful presences… They're releasing their Aura openly, making me unable to accurately detect them. Even so, I can detect distinct differences between the Aura Signatures, which is how I know there is only two people. They know I can sense them…"

"Think they were following us?"

"It's likely… Considering they're dispersing this much Aura around us to throw my Aura Sensing off, it's possible that they've been following and watching us from afar."

"Be on guard… If they're throwing off your sensing, then that means we can't get an accurate estimation on where they'll attack from. So keep your eyes open."

A few seconds of silence ensued until a voice spoke through the line of trees.

"Well well ms. Fox… I'm impressed you can see through my brothers Aura Screen. It makes our Aura Signatures invisible to all others that can sense Aura. Except you. You have some serious skill." Spoke a feminine voice.

"Agreed. Which is why we won't take you so lightly."

"I don't know who you two are, but if you leave now, we won't be inclined to do anything to you."

"You? Hurt us? Yeah right! As if a cripple like you can do anything to either of us!"

Dante's right eye twitched slightly.

"That little brat…"

"Make this easier for yourselves and come out of hiding. This will be your final warning." Said Inuba as she slightly unsheathed her weapon.

Without warning, a small beam of black Aura outlined in white came straight for Dante, but the teen easily raised his sword, and with some effort, blocked the attack. Both Dante and Inuba separated in the next instant as something crashed down at where they stood previously.

The dust settled and revealed one of two attackers. The weapon that nearly hit them was a scythe, with a blade as long as five feet. It had a half circle notch on the sharp edge curve of the scythe blade where it was attached to the pole. From the point where the blade emerged, it emerged from the mouth of a black human looking skull at the top end of the pole.

From where the skull was located, the pole adorned a small black rib cage. The long pole of the scythe itself resembled that of a skeletons spine that was slightly curved where the rib cage was located, also colored black, with white colored ligaments, the pole ending in a lower backbone. The scythe stood at seven feet tall total, two feet taller than its wielder.

A breeze swept through, blowing back the black cloak to reveal their attacker. She wore a sort of bone white mask-helmet that covered her entire face and head, the mask only having two slanted eyeholes.

From what Dante could tell at the moment, she seemed somewhere between being well developed and petite with rather beautifully slender arms and legs. This told him she had to be between the age of fourteen to fifteen. For apparel, she wore a white blouse with a black dress vest that had two tails that reached the back of her knees.

She also wore a black pleated skirt, the trimming and inside of the skirt colored a pure white, similar to Inuba's own skirt minus the line patterns the Kitsune girl had on her skirt. The skirt of their attacker reached to the midsection of her thighs. For footwear, she sported black knee high boots with white zippers on the outer side of the boots.

"Nice dodge~! It's no wonder why I almost got my hand cut! You really are fast on your feet!"

"So I didn't lash out aimlessly…"

"Master..?"

"I woke up and drew my sword. I thought someone was there, but when I saw nothing, I just brushed it off. Even so, part of me still believed someone was there."

Inuba immediately spun around and deflected a small beam of Aura that came from behind, seeing the other attacker standing a few feet away.

He, like his partner in crime, wore a bone white mask-helmet of similar design. His choice of clothing consisted of a white long sleeved dress shirt that was covered up by a black thin fabric jacket with white trim and the collar upturned. He also wore simple grey jeans and grey shoes with grey soles.

His weapon, or rather weapons of choice, were twin handcannons, both colored a pure white with black trimming and intricate, wavy black patterns adorning the barrels. The barrels themselves were a foot long each. From the butt of the handles extended two black, thin chain links, the chains hidden inside the sleeves of his jacket due to the fact the chains emerged from the inside of his sleeves.

"Sorry ms. Fox, but you will be my opponent today." He spoke.

"Nowhere to run~"

"What do we do Master?" Whispered Inuba.

"We play along for now. I'll take the brat and you take the other one in front of you. Don't take any chances with them. They give you an opening, you take it."

"Understood."

Inuba immediately blurred out of sight and reappeared in front of her opponent with the handcannons in a burst of white flame, slashing at his face. The attacker dodged backwards before taking another leap backwards, leaving Dante alone with his opponent with the scythe.

"Since you're a cripple, if you ask nicely, I'll go easy on you."

"Don't get your hopes up too high."

His scythe wielding opponent chuckled before instantly appearing before him, her scythe swinging in low and below form his left. Barely having anytime to react, the teen swung his sword down to parry the attack, only to find an elbow crash into his jaw, forcing him to spin around from the force of her attack. Dante was utterly surprised by the speed and strength of his opponent. It was almost as if-

Another swing came in to slash his throat, but he leaned back, dropped low and swung his sword at her legs. Using her scythe as support, the girl immediately left up to avoid the strike to her legs to deliver a stomp kick at Dante. The teen quickly responded by delivering a spinning side, the soles of their shoes making contact and creating a rather strong shockwave. The two combatants kicked off each other to put distance between them.

This is unbelievable… Not only is she fast, but she's insanely strong for a little girl! Is she even human?!

"Don't tell me that's all you've got. I've been looking forward to this you know. Don't disappoint me!"

She brought her scythe to her side and swung. Despite the distance between them, Dante was confused at the moment.

Is she going to toss her scythe at me..?

A second more of waiting was all he needed to confirm this was not the case.

No, it's going to-!

The spinal column-like pole of the scythe extended itself, the pure white ligaments attached to the black bone segments growing longer to add impressive range to her swing. Dante raised up his sword to catch the pole of the scythe, the weapons blade directly behind his backside. The teen found himself being rapidly moved by the swing until he felt the pole contract, signaling him to dodge as the scythe blade barely missed the back of his neck.

The girls scythe contracted to normal length, who then twirled it around in her hand twice before grabbing hold of it with both hands again.

"Hey, you're pretty good! Most people aren't able to dodge that attack."

"It really isn't that hard to do so if you keep two things in mind. One, the fact that you can contract and extend your scythe during and after an attack. And two, the speed of contraction and extension of your weapon, which is as fast as my weapons transformation speed of point five seconds."

The girl whistled.

"A bit of an observer are we? Well then...you might be fun to fight after all, even if you are a cripple."

"I'm just going to ignore those cripple comments from now on."

Dante quickly ran on towards his opponent, sliding under a wide swing at his body before standing up again and lashing out towards the blade, which only provided the weapon more momentum for a quick second attack that he blocked. This time, instead of being swung around, the teen stood in place, only slightly moved.

Looks like he's getting used to my current strength and speed…

The girls train of thought was interrupted when Dante broke their short clash and forced her blade back, which allowed her to unleash a twirling whirlwind attack that moved from side to side of the girl at blinding speeds, temporarily transforming her attack into spinning saw blade attack that sent the teen flying.

"Keep trying~"

Dante remained where he was, studying his opponent.

She's keeping me at a distance when possible, and when I get close, she's fending me off. Comparing weapons, I should be faster. But she's keeping up with my speed. More so actually. But how? The fact she's kept up with my speed so far and is matching my strength leads me to assume she's not human. So what is she then? Are there inhuman beings that are showing up only now? Or...are the two of them people that came from outside of this World like me?

Inuba walked through the heavily wooded area with her hand hovering over her katana; her ears were perked up and attent, her crimson red irises scanning the area constantly for the slightest movements. With a quick and fluid motion, she drew her sword and lashed out towards an incoming Aura beam, cutting through it instantly.

Within the beam, she spotted something strange. She reached out and grabbed the object, examining it closely. It was a bullet. A black bullet. It emanated a dark energy.

This material… I know what it is!

She immediately dropped the fragment and began to rapidly slash at an incoming hail of Aura beams that had bullets mixed into them, quickly deflecting the shots as fast as possible until the the quickfire onslaught of bullets ceased. Looking towards the ground, she noticed more of the black bullets, as well as white bullets as well. Her previous thoughts had now been confirmed.

She heard a rush of wind, sensing her opponent had come out of hiding with his handcannon pointed directly at her head. She ducked to avoid the shot and lashed out behind her, finding that her blade had stopped at the chains attached to the butt of the guns that went inside the sleeves of his jacket. Not stopping there, the Kitsune girl spun around and began to relentlessly assault her foe with rapid strikes, to which he responded with blocking through utilization of his chains and weapons themselves, occasionally trying to fire off a shot at Inuba whenever she was in his target sights.

Inuba went for an overhead strike that her opponent blocked by crossing his guns, her white blade stopping directly on the base of the weapons. The owner of the handcannons quickly shot at the base of Inuba's blade to force her katana out of her hand and into a nearby tree, opening her for attack.

Surprisingly, this did nothing to hinder her defense. The Kitsune girl immediately removed her sheath from the black sash around her waist and spun it around rapidly, deflecting the new onslaught of bullets until she leapt to the tree and regained her weapon. She noticed an action earlier that her target repeated currently. He twirled his handcannons around his trigger fingers twice before holding them normally them again and resuming to assault Inuba again.

She deflected, carefully counting the amount of shots of each barrage, which totaled to twenty four shots. After twenty four shots, he twirled his handcannons around again and took cover behind a tree after the Kitsune girl shot a white orb of flame at him that fragmented into smaller bolts of fire when he shot at it. Some of the bolts passed through the trees as if they were paper, the boy moving his head to the side to avoid a fatal injury.

That was close… She's doing a lot better than I expected… Then again, she's Dante's partner. It would only make sense she's this good.

He ducked down to avoid having his head cut off as Inuba's pure white blade cut through the thick tree with ease. Expecting her to be open to attack, he pointed his left handcannon at her, only to find that she had quickly spun around to unleash another powerful slash that disarmed him of his weapon. Even so, the momentum forced his body to shift sideways, moving his other gun towards the Kitsune girl. She dodged the shot by stepping sideways, followed by her grabbing his arm and easily flinging him a distance away.

The body was now soaring upside down, the chains emerging from his left sleeve retracting to bring back his discarded weapon, allowing him to use both guns to shot at her. Inuba deflected the first few shots before leaping up into the air, spinning around to avoid the next volley before she straight tossed her katana directly at the dual handcannon wielder. He expected his bullets to throw off the swords trajectory, but found this was quite the opposite when his bullets split apart when they made contact with the weapons point.

Thoroughly surprised, he quickly twirled his guns around yet again before bringing in his legs, soon planting them on the trunk of their tree and moving to the side to avoid the katana coming straight for him. A burst of white flame forced back his right hand, leaving him with only one gun to shoot at the fast approaching Inuba. Yet again she dodged his volley, planting one of her feet into his stomach to keep him in place as she grabbed hold of her sword and dragged it through the wood of the tree towards him.

The boy ducked down to avoid the blade and threw his shoulder into the Kitsune girl to throw her off him, allowing him to point his guns at her yet again, ready to fire. Inuba responded by spinning around in the air and lashing her sword at the gun, forcing it inwards towards his arm as his fired, both Aura beam and bullet passing through his left forearm, forcing him to let go of his weapon.

Inuba then planted her foot atop his arm and kicked off, allowing her to move above her opponent slightly to spin vertically in the air and deliver a spinning heel axe kick atop her attackers head with a thunderous crack that echoed throughout the forest. The boy immediately plummeted into the ground face first, crashing into the earth below with enough force to create a small shockwave.

Inuba landed on the ground in the next second and watched carefully as the dust settled, seeing the figure of her opponent implanted in the ground. He showed no signs of movement, allowing the Kitsune girl to catch her breath and sheath her weapon. That was until she saw him shift and stir, slowly removing himself from his the earth that now retained the shape of his body.

The boy surprisingly did not attack her, but instead, brought back his discarded handcannons to his hands through usage of the chains, both guns and chains disappearing in a burst of black Aura outlined in white shortly after.

His face had not been fully revealed yet, but as the fragments of the now broken mask-helmet fell apart piece by piece, his face had soon become completely visible to Inuba.

"I would say that hurt ms. Fox...but considering that you've now seen my face, I assume you now know why it didn't exactly hurt…"

Inuba's expression changed into that of pure surprise.

"This..! This is impossible!"

Dante rolled out of the way from the swing of the girls scythe and lashed out to block another strike, the two soon engaging one another in a rapid flurry of attacks that resulted in a constant stream of sparks until the girl swung upwards to force Dante's weapon up, allowing her time to attempt another spinning heel kick to his side. Dante responded by raising up his leg to take the hit, where he then pushed away her leg using his own and went in for a stab to her right shoulder.

The girl moved to the side and attempted a spinning backhand strike with her left hand, where she followed suite with a swing of her scythe that remained in her right hand. Dante ducked under both strikes and quickly spun around, using his sword to lash out at the girl with enough force to create a shockwave and sent her flying through one of the trees nearby.

The girl immediately back flipped mid air, planting her feet on the next tree behind her as she kicked off it and dashed at him in the air at blinding speed, ready to take another swing at him. Dante went for another stab at her, only to find she immediately vanished from sight. Shortly after, a large cut appeared on his chest, blood seeping into his clothes for only a moment until his wound closed immediately after the attack.

What is happening? I'm sure I had her in my sight… I got used to her speed well enough to allow me to track her movements… But just now...she vanished out of sight. Did she suddenly move faster in a focused burst? Or maybe…

"Hmph… Looks like this fight will be over sooner than I thought… I'll give you props for lasting this long. But I think it's about time we end this. Frankly, I'm getting a little bored."

"Bored, huh? And I didn't even get to show you some of my tricks?"

"Tricks?"

Dante's longsword glowed with his white Aura outlined in black, which followed with him quickly twirling his sword upside down and plunging it into the ground, which unleashed a small shockwave of his Aura that sent forth dozens of Aura longswords at once, forcing the girl to twirl her scythe around in front of her. A few of the Aura swords immediately shattered upon making contact with her sword, the others plunging into tree near or behind the girl.

"That's a pretty dull trick." She said as she stopped twirling her scythe around.

Dante chuckled to himself.

"Who said the trick was over?"

He then dashed forwards at his opponent with blinding speed, sword low towards the ground while the girls scythe had been already raised, ready for a reaping swing. Instead of her scythe blade making contact with the teens body, he vanished out of sight in a small stream of white Aura outlined in black.

The girl was more than surprised, lashing her scythe out towards her right side to block a swing from Dante's sword aimed at her side. Before she had time to retaliate, he yet again vanished in a stream of his uniquely colored Aura, appearing at her left side for a stab that she leapt backwards to dodge, allowing her to take a swing at him, only to miss yet again as he vanished. Soon after, Dante had been appearing and reappearing around her from all directions at such intense speeds that it seemed as though there were six of him, constantly teleporting around the girl in streams of white Aura outlined in black.

Eventually, he began his attack, striking at the girl constantly from numerous directions at blinding speed, the girl being only able to dodge a few attacks as well as block to the best of her ability. She took a swing and missed, soon finding that her backside had been left with a deep cut, which forced her to swing wildly behind her, only to miss another strike.

Dante had appeared behind her yet again and went for another side swiped, finding that his blade had been blocked after the girl quickly placed her scythe behind her back, her spinal column-like pole taking the brunt of the attack to allow her an attempt to round kick Dante. The teen immediately ducked under her attack, spun around and slashed at her, his opponent using her scythe to block the attack yet again as she was sent skidding on her heels a considerable distance.

"Alright… You've had your fun… Now I'm mad…"

The girl lowered herself towards the ground, entering a stance as she brought her scythe back.

"Don't blink."

Within the next instant, she instantly appeared where Dante was located and swung, smiling under her mask-helmet. Her smile turned into pure shock when she realized she hit nothing. Instead, she felt the cold touch of steel against her throat.

"How did you-?"

"Two reasons. One, by this point in time, I've fought many people who've had the abilities, or variations of the abilities, of spacial relocation and time manipulation, which I'm assuming one of the two is your ability. Which leads to number two. Two, because I have experience fighting people with your ability, it's fairly easy to tell whether or not I'm fighting one of your kind. The 'tell' is fairly simple to identify if a target manages to survive an attack or two. The 'tell'? If an opponent somehow inexplicably manages to land an attack on you across a distance, one that surpasses speed itself, that's how you know."

The teen continued after a brief pause, saying "My eyesight and tracking capabilities far surpass that of any living human. A person I know to be infamous for her usage of speed is a slight example here. Though her Semblance allows her to move at blinding speed, I can still see and track her movements, even if she can move faster than I can. But just because I see it doesn't mean I move faster entirely. Considering I saw no movement from you closing the distance, you basically gave the 'tell'. Get the gist of it?"

"How did you counter? How did you move out of the way?"

Dante closed his eyes for a moment and then reopened them as numerous Aura Longswords came into view, all scattered around the battlefield in numerous locations.

"My Semblance, Aura Manipulation, has a sub-ability that acts as a sort of spacial relocation ability. Teleportation in short. Through usage and scattering of my Aura Swords across the battlefield, I can teleport to any Aura sword I created at any given time so long as it wasn't destroyed beforehand. It makes for effective use of traveling over long distances and closing gaps in virtually an instant."

"I see…"

The girl swung her scythe behind her, only to find that it had been block by four Aura swords that appeared in a downwards horizontal formation to shield Dante from the attack. Soon after, the sword tips pointed towards the girl and moved outwards, only one of the four managing to hit the teens attacker, forcing her back.

The top right corner of the girls mask had been broken away, revealing calm, bright sky blue eyes staring back at him, small strands of long white hair sticking out from her mask-helmet now.

What the..? Is she a Schnee? Weiss never told me about another sibling. As far as I know, the only children of the Schnee family currently is Weiss and Winter.

Before Dante could ask the question he wanted, Inuba ran out of the forest behind the girl, forcing both of their attention on the Kitsune girl currently.

"What happened to the other one?" Asked Dante.

"Um… Master..? This...may be somewhat difficult to explain…"

"What do you mean?" Asked Dante confused.

It was then he noticed someone standing behind Inuba. When he moved his head to the side, Inuba hesitated for a moment, but soon stepped away.

It was safe to say Dante was thoroughly confused at the moment. The boy standing behind Inuba had chin length white hair that was slightly messy, where the front part of his bangs fell between his eyes, which were colored bright sky blue. And his face...his face was eerily similar to his own. Dante then looked the girl with the shattered mask, remembering she too had bright sky blue eyes, just like himself and the boy. When she removed her mask-helmet, long white hair tied up into a ponytail flowed freely, her side bangs resting on her shoulders. Her facial features also slightly resembled his own.

Extreme confusion had set in as Dante looked back and forth between the two rapidly, not being able to make head or tails of what he was seeing. Was he dreaming? Was he hallucinating?

His eyes met the snowy ground as his mind continued to process what he saw. And then it happened. Memories stirred. Two children. Younger than he was, but not much younger. Two names came to mind soon after as his senses were restored. He looked up at the two, only less confused than he was previously.

"Ciel…" He said looking towards the girl, who then jolted upwards upon hearing her name.

"And...Leonard…" He said looking to the boy, who then let out a relaxed sigh.

Immediately afterwards Dante found himself tackled to the snowy ground by the girl known as Ciel.

"You… You remember…" She spoke softly, almost as if she were on the verge of tears as she buried her face into his chest.

"I...I guess I'll say it first then… Hi again, big brother… You… You...don't know how long we've been waiting to see you again…"

Inuba and Dante sat next to each other on one of the beds in the four-bedded room, Ciel and Leonard sitting on the one across from them. The Kitsune girl looked between the three rather awkwardly, trying to figure out something to say to ease the tension.

"Master?"

He immediately raised his hand for silence, his eyes currently focused on the twin siblings as he stared at them continuously without so much as blinking.

"You two are my younger siblings…Ciel and Leonard…"

"Yup." Responded Ciel.

"Exactly so." Replied Leonard.

"I get it. I haven't woken up yet, and I'm still in the forest sleeping. This is a product of my imagination."

"No, Master. This is very much real… As hard as it is to believe at first...it's...very real…" Said Inuba.

"If you need proof, we can show you." Said Leonard as both he and Ciel raised up their left hands.

On each of their index fingers on their left hands were stoneplate rings that had rectangular stones set in the metal. The rectangular stones themselves were obsidian black with numerous diamond shaped patterns cut into the stones. In the stones were small white metal shield crests with black backgrounds that had the letter "A" in white metal etched into the black background of the shield crest. The rectangular metal surrounding the rings stones, as well as the metal band, were colored pure white with intricate black colored etchings carved into the white metal.

Dante looked to his own left hand, seeing that the ring on his index finger was of the same design. The only difference was that compared to Leonard and Ciel's rings, the rectangular metal surrounding the stone and the metal band were jet black with white etchings carved into the band. His stone was the same color and stone-cut design as theirs, the same being said for the shield crest design that rested in the middle of the stone.

"The design and shape are similar, but why are yours colored differently?" Asked Dante.

"So you don't know about the rings then…" Ciel said.

"The reason the color of our rings look this way is because we've reached a sort of equilibrium between our Light and Dark Powers, considering we're part Dark Entity, part Angel."

"An equilibrium… Can you explain my ring then?" He said moving it closer to the two.

The twins examined, but were slightly confused.

"We feel something coming from the ring...but...it's strange…" Said Ciel.

"Strange how?"

"Well, let me explain how the rings work." Said Leonard.

"The rings display three things overall depending on current status of power. Pure White, where the rings metal and stone is colored pure white, signifies that your current state of power leans more towards your Powers of Light. Pure Black signifies you lean more towards Dark Powers at the moment, like how your ring looks like. Then you have a blend of the two, like Ciel's ring and my own ring, that signify an equal balance and usage of both power sets at the same time."

"But...that's impossible… I lost all traces of my old powers a long time ago. If that's the case, shouldn't my ring be Pure White?"

"Did you have the ring on when you lost your old powers?" Asked Ciel

"No…"

"It's very likely then that the ring is stuck in Pure Black form since you didn't have it on at the time. See, our rings not only display which power is dominant at the time, but slightly take in our powers by only the tiniest of amounts. In your case, if you poured enough Dark Power into the ring, then lost your Dark Powers before you put the ring back on, it'll be stuck on that mode."

"I never really knew I was part Angel part Dark Entity until I came to Remnant long ago. So I never even thought of the idea of me having Powers of Light."

"Because you never knew they existed in you back then, especially since you primarily relied on your Dark Powers as your main power. You never had a chance really to access your Powers of Light."

"If my Dark Powers were what constituted my main power, then wouldn't it make sense for me to be left with my Powers of Light, therefore making my ring Pure White?"

"Not exactly brother… Technically, both power sets are part of one whole central power. You lose one like you did, you lose the other half as well. Which is what isn't making sense to either of us right now…" Said Leonard.

"Let me sum it up before you go into another long winded explanation. Basically, we don't know what kind of power your ring is giving off. But at the same time...we don't know what power you have in you currently. It's like...they're two separate powers compared to Light and Dark Powers. They're different, but similar in some respects."

"It's nothing to be concerned about if you were wondering."

Dante brought his left hand back in, staring at his ring for a few moments before another thought crossed his mind.

"There's supposed to be four of us total...right?" He asked the twins.

"Four..?" They asked in unison confused.

"There's you two and...and...who was it… I remember someone else, but I can't remember their name."

"We only know about you brother. No one else." Said Leonard.

"What he said. We woke up one day...and...well...we were here on Remnant. We've been here on this World living in Vacuo for as long as we can remember." Said Ciel.

"Do you know about the other Worlds?" Asked Dante.

"We know of them, it's just we've never traveled to them. But we've seen the places you've seen and experienced."

"How did you-?" He paused immediately before resuming. "That girl in white?"

"Yeah! You know her too?" Asked Ciel.

"Of course I do. She's been helping me for the longest time now."

"We've known her for a very long time. Since we were children really. She was the only one capable of leaving Remnant and going to other always. And when she came back, she always brought back a story of your exploits. Showed us even." Said Leonard.

"So we kinda know a lot about you by now…" Said Ciel.

"How'd you guys find me?"

"We felt a strange occurrence about a month ago, which allowed us to feel your presence. Ever since we confirmed you were here on Remnant, we were on the move looking for you. Luckily, you came our way while we were heading to Vale, since the presence came from that direction."

"So you guys were hanging around this area?"

"In a manner of speaking. We were just walking through, like we usually do, then, poof. There's your Aura signature out of nowhere. So we waited here until you got close enough and decided we'd meet you halfway. Which we kinda did but…" Said Ciel.

"Why not just come out at first and say, 'Hey, we're your younger brother and sister'?"

"How awkward of a conversation do you think that'd be after we say that out of the blue?" Asked Ciel.

It took Dante a moment to think about it.

"Good point. But still… The fighting? The egging me on?"

"Our family's way of going about it I guess? I don't know. It's just something I came up with on the spot. Leo just kinda followed along with it."

"I told you it was a bad idea…"

"It so was not! It was a good idea! To some degree!"

Leonard only sighed as Ciel began arguing with him.

Inuba giggled to herself, raising her hand to her face and earning a confused look from Dante.

"What?"

"It's nothing… They're just like you in a few instances…"

"The younger me at least… By the way, how old are you two?"

"Fifteen. We're a year younger than you."

"So your birthdays are on Christmas Eve like mine? How lucky is that… So what now? What's yours guys' next plan of action?"

"We talked it over together and we made a decision. From now on, wherever you go, we'll go." Said Leo.

"From what we know, there's four people to a standard team of Huntsmen and Huntresses, right? And right now it's just the two of you. With the two of us, you get a whole team. So big brother, will you let us come with you?" Asked Ciel.

"Well...if you guys really want to...then sure."

"Yes! Mission success!" Screamed Ciel as both she and Leonard high fived each other.

"This is gonna be so awesome! We're gonna go on so many cool and awesome adventures! Slay freakin terrifying creatures! Blow stuff up! I'm so excited!" Said then younger girl kicking her feet about.

"Right now, Inuba and I were on our way to Haven. Have you two ever been there before?"

"Sorry brother, we haven't. We started out in Vacuo and slowly made our way to the region of Vale overtime. We somewhat rushed and didn't stop for a while after we felt your presence." Said Leonard.

"Either way, that's where we're headed. You probably know this by now, but Vale was attacked last month by someone called Cinder Fall. She lead an incursion of Grimm and White Fang into the city, and even managed to hack Ironwood's mechanical army that was meant to defend them. The enemy forces were pushed back and a safe zone in the city was established, but it's still under assault by Grimm."

"We heard as much…"

"And just when I thought I could take a nice vacation in Vale too…" Said Ciel.

"I want you two to understand something now. We're going to go many places and see a lot of different things. Some good. Some bad. And-"

"Like I told Leo, don't give us a long winded speech." Said Ciel raising up a hand.

"Despite how Ciel just put it, we're with you brother. We'll fight alongside you until the bitter end."

"Thank you." Said the teen, earning a smile from him his younger siblings.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you didn't know by now, my partner Inuba Kitsukami." Said Dante motioning to Inuba.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two." She said bowing her head.

"The pleasure is ours ms. Kitsukami. You're quite the combatant." Said Leo.

"I'm fairly experienced." She responded.

"Alrighty then. Now that we got all that out of the way, I'm pretty sure they have dinner ready for us down stairs. So, let's go celebrate all this over dinner. Agreed?"

"I could go for something to eat." Said Ciel as both she and Leo headed out the door first.

"Well Master...we've found ourselves in quite a situation. Not so much situation...but…"

"I know what you mean...but either way…"

She turned around, taking a glance at her Masters face.

"I'm happy you know? I have actual flesh and blood siblings… It's...a really good feeling knowing that…" He said clutching his chest, a bright smile on his face.

Inuba could feel the happiness he emanated, and that in turn made her overjoyed. His happiness was her happiness. It was simple as that. And in a way, she could understand clearly how he felt currently. He wasn't alone. Not that he ever truly was...but he had family again. People he could actually call brother and sister. People he never knew existed until now currently in front of him.

The duo reached the bottom of the stairway from their room to see everyone up and about in celebration.

"They're awfully cheery…"

"Well, it is important to maintain some form of cheerful demeanor is these troubling times…" Said Inuba as her eyes remained glued on the group of people dancing a short distance away.

It was something her Master noticed almost immediately. And so, he extended a hand to his partner, who quickly turned towards him in a slightly confused manner.

"Do you wanna go dance?"

"D-Dance..?"

"I know it'd be weird to go dance with a guy who can only use one arm, but-"

"No no… That's not an issue… In fact, I'm glad you asked… I would love to…" She said taking his hand.

"Okay…so I didn't think about this all too well… How are we going to do this?" Asked Dante.

Inuba giggled to herself.

"It's alright Master. I'll help you as much as possible."

As the two approached the dance floor, Ciel and Leo watched from the table a short distance away, going about their beverages slowly.

"Do you think she likes him? Ms. Fox I mean. And I'm talking about 'like like', not-" Asked Ciel.

"I know what you mean. As for my answer, of course she does. Don't you remembering seeing in the Memory Reels how she acted around him and still acts around him currently? It's obvious she's extremely attached to him."

"Think she's tried putting the moves on big brother yet?"

"Yes and no. She has, but in really subtle ways. At least, as subtle as she can be. I understand the case back then on Primordial. But here on Remnant? How has he not noticed yet?"

"Maybe he already has a girlfriend and ms. Fox came late to the party?"

"It's possible…."

"Do you think she'll continue trying and waiting for him?"

"Of course. With how attached she is to him, it's in her nature to do so. Eventually, I do think she will tell him. At least...I hope she will."

"Ugh… That's depressing… Well, I'm going out there to have some fun. You coming Leo?"

"Yeah, sure thing." Said the boy as he put down his mug and approached the dance floor with his twin.

"Hey guys! Ready to see some mad skills?" Said Ciel as she looked towards Dante and Inuba.

"You think you have what it takes to beat me little sister? I've been at this probably longer than you have." Said Dante.

"I think I can manage a cripple." She replied confidently.

"Oh you are so on."

Dante plunged an Aura sword deep into the stone floor of a shack, followed by Inuba placing her hand on the pommel of the Aura sword, her white flames cloaking her Master's Aura projected weapon. The barrier surrounding the village soon dissolved, a thin barrier of white flame taking its place soon after before vanishing in the air.

"That should do it. Grimm won't be in your vicinity for a long time, and just in case they do, the barrier won't only repel mid-sized Grimm, but might kill them upon contact. It'll definitely kill the smaller ones though."

"We can't thank you enough for your efforts mr. Dante. On behalf of the village, we wish you and your companions safe travels on your journey."

"Thank you sir. We wish you the best of luck of here." Said Dante giving a short bow, his younger brother and sister doing the same before following after him.

"So you've been helping villages you've been stopping at along the way?" Asked Ciel.

"Pretty much. We should do as much good as we can while traveling. Even if our main goal is different it's always nice to help out as many people in between. Troublesome times are coming. And it's our duty to help as much as possible whenever we can."

"Right, right. Part of being the whole Huntsmen and Huntress thing. We get it. Kind of. Sort of. In any case, you just point out the bad guys for me and I'll take care of 'em."

"Good to hear."

Dante stopped in his tracks and looked around momentarily.

"Something wrong, brother?" Asked Leo.

"Where's Inuba?" Asked Dante.

"Oh, there she is." Pointed out Ciel, directing them to Inuba who has just thanked a clerk at one of the stands before rushing back to the group of three.

"My apologies for keeping you all waiting." She said as she approached, clutching something towards her chest.

"What'd you buy?" Asked Dante.

"Oh… Well…"

Her fox tail whipped about as she brought her hands in closer before presenting her hands to him, showing that she had a necklace-charm of sorts with a small fox face made of pure white metal, and closed, slanted eyes colored black. The fox face was attached to a black string of sorts. When Dante took the charm and looked on the backside, he saw the Japanese kanji for "happiness" etched into the metal. And from the warmth it emitted, the kanji was just recently etched in.

"I saw it and thought you'd like it...so I…"

"I don't know what to say… Except thank you of course. I really like it." He said smiling.

"I'm glad you like it...Master… Oh! I actually bought a pair for the both of you as well!" She said handing two similar necklace-charms to Ciel and Leo.

"To commemorate your arrival and joining us on on our journey." Said Inuba.

"What's this say on the back?" Asked Ciel raising the back of her necklace towards Dante.

"Let's see… Protection and Family… Same for you Leo."

"Incredible… Thank you very much ms. Kitsukami." Said Leo as both he and Ciel pocketed their gifts.

"You're very welcome you two. I'm glad you like them."

Inuba looked over to Dante, who stared at the back of the necklace continuously, slowly rubbing his thumb over the etching.

Happiness huh…

"Master?"

"Hmm?" He said quickly raising his head up.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah… Just spaced out for a moment is all… Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

"Alright… Leo, Ciel, let's go."

The twins followed after their brother, but Inuba remained in her place momentarily, opening her other hand to reveal she too possessed a necklace-charm, the same as theirs. Only, the etching on the back of her charm was written with the kanji "protection" and "love".

Right now...just being by your side is more than enough for me. But I can't and won't wait much longer… Eventually…I will tell you my true feelings directly. But...I'm terrified… If tomorrow...I were to cry out in the most heartfelt manor 'I love you'...would you say 'I love you' in return? In the same way as I have done all this time? I'm scared of what may happen… But what terrifies me more than anything, is not being able to tell you at all.

Inuba took a final look at the charm before pocketing it, quickly rushing up to her Master's side.

I will wait a while longer...and then...I'll hope for the best…

Holy cow what a first chapter! Dante has two younger siblings?! What the what?! I bet you guys you weren't expecting that. And no, I didn't just think of it recently. Ciel and Leonard were created shortly after Volume 2 and were worked on until now. Originally, I had intended to introduce them in the Volume 3 arc, but I didn't see a good enough opportunity to do it. So I decided, since everyone is going their separate ways for now during Volume 4, Ruby and friends separate from Dante and Inuba, it just made sense to do it.

Now...also, originally, I wanted to wait a little bit longer until I introduced the two of them, but my excitement could no longer be contained, and so we see them here, now, in the very first chapter. Dante, Inuba, Ciel and Leonard will have plenty of their own original journeys and adventures they will undergo as group both before and during Volume 4.

I'm meshing my own stuff into canon, that way it isn't just only a regurgitation of canon, but also an original story within it. Get it? Yes? No? Maybe? If not, think of it in this way. A story arc within a story arc, that's as much as I can simplify it. It'll be tough to do considering what I want to have happen concerning my original workings, but I've pulled it off before and I will do it again. So like I said, expect greatness, awe, wonder, joy, sadness, all that mess of emotions as we move through the season. Trust me folks, you don't want to miss what happens.

Two side notes. One, go check out the freaking amazing collab Xera Stark and I are currently working on concerning his story XSRA's Flame. His story overall is absolutely fantastic and is a must read, so I suggest you read from the very start. But, if you're just interested in the awesome collab our two minds put together have created, then mozy on down to chapter 53 of his story for the start. Like the above, you won't want to miss out on this story, and especially this exciting story arc we've created.

Side note two. I've had an interesting idea recently. I've noticed some big authors doing it on the site, and I wondered to myself "Hmm...I wonder if people will like these?" So, as of today onwards, Hero of Remnant: Veil of the Aether will now have short omake segments at the end of each chapter. But, they aren't simply omake segments, at least, for the vast majority of the time. You'll see what I mean…(checks watch) right now! Please enjoy!

"Heya there folks, my name is Dante."

"And I'm Ruby Rose!"

"Wow, I gotta be the first to say...it's good to be back."

"I know! I've been waiting so much just to get back into action! Just one more month before we get back on track!"

"I know I'm excited for it. Nice new outfit by the way Ruby."

"Y-You really think so?" She asked gripping the folds of her skirt blushing.

"Yeah, it really suits you well."

"T-Thank you so much!" She said rather hurriedly.

"Anyway, we aren't here simply to dish out compliments! Actually, I forget. Why are we here?" Asked Dante turning to Ruby.

"Come on Dante. The studio executives signed us on to head this segment! Don't you remember?"

"I remember them saying something… I wasn't paying all too much attention at the time… So we're leading a segment now?"

"Yup! And it's called..!"

Red curtains were pulled away to reveal a massive holographic screen, displaying the segment the two were now in charge of.

"Huntsmen and Huntresses Illustrated Weapons Guide! On this segment, we'll be talking about all the cool and totally amazing weapons we've seen throughout the Seasons! Oh this is gonna be great!" She shouted excitedly.

"Oh yeah! Now I remember! We're doing this segment while Ciel and Leo are doing the 'Semblance Encyclopedia' segment, featuring Semblances we've seen so far. Plus, everyone now and then, we'll see random segments. There was also a third one, but the studio execs were all hush hush about it… Hmmm… Anyway, why don't we get started. So Ruby? How do you want to start the first ever episode of Illustrated Weapons Guide?"

"Hmmm… Oh, I know! Why don't we talk about your weapon!"

"My weapon? Well, alright."

Dante soon brought out an extendable pointer from his coat with his left hand and lashed it out to the side, fully extending it.

"Today we'll talking about my weapon, Anvil."

As he said this, his weapon appeared on the holographic monitor unsheathed along with its sheath. The weapon as it appeared on the screen looked like a simple longsword, where the blade was three inches wide and four feet long total. The blade itself was colored a pure white. The guard was a cross guard that was colored black, each guard prong having two one inch prongs on the end that bent upwards towards the blade. The leathery grip for the first part of the handle was colored black as well, while the rest of the handle was metallic and also colored a pure white, the pommel being a simple black prong that was four inches wide.

The sheath itself was wider than the sword by three inches, while the first half from where the sword emerged was colored white while the rest of the bottom half of the sheath was colored black.

"Ah, Anvil… I remember the first time we worked together on Version 1… Oh it was so cool!" Said Ruby

"It was. Currently, Anvil is in Version 6. You know, extra additions and removals." Said Dante.

"Anvil is made through materials not found on Remnant. And if you're joining us for the first time ever, I'm not exactly from the World of Remnant. Neither is my partner Inuba. Anyway, the two materials that make up Anvil are know as Empyrean Steel, found in The Plane of Angels where the Angels reside, and Calcified Steel, found in the Dark World where Dark Entities reside."

"When these two metals are melted down together, it makes a super strong alloy that's really really really hard to break, much less dent! The alloy is magical in the sense that it's as strong as its wielder! And since Dante's super strong, the sword itself is just as tough! And because Dante is basically an uber mad scientist, he managed to program his weapon so it can transform in 0.5 seconds!"

"Not only that, but with the sciences I learned back in my World Primordial, each individual molecule is programmed in a way to make the transformation faster by literally just shifting the molecules to the programmed shape. My longsword for instance."

"Currently, Anvil has six different weapon forms! Longsword! Greatsword! Twinswords! Scythe! Greaves and Gauntlets! And katana mode!" said Ruby as each of the modes were displayed in rapid succession.

"It's very likely the most versatile weapon that's ever been created while being simple!"

"Simple is good in some cases. Doing it old school just happens to work sometimes."

"Dante isn't all too fond of guns." Said Ruby.

"They're too simplistic. But overall, they're just not my style. It's why I use my Aura swords as my ranged weapons since they can float in the air and be shot out faster than any bullet."

"Oh really? Wanna test that out against Crescent Rose?" She said brandishing her weapon.

"Maybe later. So everyone, we hope you all enjoyed the first installment of Illustrated Weapons Guide. Ciel and Leo will be here next time with the first installment of Semblance Encyclopedia, where we'll alternate between our segments after each one. So, until then, we wish you all the best."

"See you next time everyone!"

So yeah, that was the first installment of Illustrated Weapons Guide. Yeah, I know it was a little long than what it was supposed to be, but it had to be done for this time. They'll be shorter from now on, promise. Now, I have two final things to say until we part and see each other two weeks from now.

Remember the random segments Ruby and Dante mentioned above? Well, good news everyone! Those random segments are open spaces for you, yes you, the audience members to make your own omakes and have them submitted to me to be included after the end of each chapter! Now, just because you don't see your omake first in one of the chapters, doesn't mean it won't ever be seen. I'll be saving some up to be put in at later times.

The way this will work is that if submissions are made, especially in plentiful amounts, they'll appear directly after a short segment of Illustrated Weapons Guide or Semblance Encyclopedia, since the two will be switching off every two weeks. Remember one rule and one rule only for the current time being, the omakes have to be short, not really really long. That's it. So, make your omake submissions and have them seen right here!

Wow… What a way to kick of the first chapter of Veil of the Aether… We get two new siblings that are Dante's younger brother and sister, we get a glimpse of a totally awesome new villain and we get the addition of end chapter Segments. Honestly, I'm more than glad with how things have started and really excited with how things will go from now on. And hopefully, the same can be said of you, my excellent readers.

Please remember to review, follow and favorite this story if you really enjoyed it and want to continue seeing more of it. And hey, even tell others about this story! Remember that your support is what helps make this story grow even larger and what helps it improve it. With that, I wish you all an excellent week/weekend! See you next time!