Chapter 205: Viewership

Chapter 205: Viewership

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Viewership

"Done," I said as I reappeared at Raven's side, exiting Naraka once more.

Raven frowned slightly, nothing but her eyes moving as she focused upon me. She'd been watching our entire conversation through a portal, naturally, but she couldn't track me with Narakawhich, I suppose, made me one of the few people she had a hard time keeping track of.

"So I saw," She replied nonetheless. "How much of that did you make up on the spot?"

I hummed for a moment, tilted my head to the side, and shrugged.

"Most of it," I admitted. "Though I prefer to call it improvising."

Raven snorted slightly at that, turning her face my way and shooting me a dry look.

"Call it what you will," She told me, but there was a touch of amusement coloring her voice so I knew she didn't mean anything by it. "Still, was it safe to tell him that much? Ironwood has always had a bit of a reckless streak."

"I don't think there will be any issues," I replied, nodding slightly. "From what I've seen of him, while he may be a touch quick to act, it is mainly because of his concerns for the safety of others. He seems to understand what is at stake and the importance of subtlety in our present situationand, more than that, it's not just his own life at risk."

Raven considered me for a moment before blinking slowly.

"The girl?" She asked.

"He considers her his daughter," I confirmed. "And while he might gamble with his own life should the situation call for it, he won't put his child's life at risk. Trust me; that's something I know a fair bit about."

"I suppose so," She whispered, lifting a hand and looking down at it. Given how her emotions shifted, she was probably thinking of Yang.

"Besides which," I continued. "He won't do anything before at least contacting Ozpin."

She nodded in concession on that front, even as her eyebrows pinched.

"Probably not," She agreed. "Butwhat if Ozpin?"

"If Ozpin chooses not to support my claims?" I answered delicately. "Then that's useful information in its own right. I'd be surprised if he chose not to support me, to be honest, but I suppose this would be as good a time to find out as any. I admit, I'm somewhat nervous about approaching Ozpin in person, but if it's someone else making a call, there shouldn't be any problems. Even if he could somehow detect me from the other side of the screen and the world, I'd be surprised if he could sense me while I was sorting through the airwaves."

I shrugged again and looked up at the sky, staring back in the direction of Ironwood's ship.

"But more than thatI think it's unlikely that Ozpin would choose now of all times to act against me, Rider or not," I continued. "It doesn't make sense from a logical or personal perspective. Logically speaking, Cinder is almost finished loading the Paladins and even if Ironwood tried to reach her now, it would be easy for us to extract her before he arrived; after the delays I caused Ironwood, there just wouldn't be any point. And if Ozpin wanted to turn upon me, I suspect that he'd prefer to do so at such a time when I wasn't on a different continent, easily alerted of his intentions, and able to quickly escape. But more personallyhe's never acted against me in such a way, so there's little reason to fear he'd do so now. Ozpin's always helped me, even when it might not seem in his best interests to do so, such as when I stole the White Whale and he didn't interfere. Given the choice, I suspect he would choose to help me now, as well. There's little need to worry about him in that regard, I feel."

"But you've worried about it," Raven noted.

"I worry about everything," I stated dismissively. "Especially major potential threats. I spend most of my day within a field of highly accelerated time with nothing else to do but think about the many things that may or may not try and kill me or who I'll need to face to protect the world. Ozpin's suspicious in various ways and I'd rather be prepared for the worst and proven wrong than be caught off-guard. If it turns out that Ozpin isn't a Rider, then he's a fairly relaxed guy and will probably accept an apology for the misunderstanding; I'll spend a few minutes working in the fields and grow a couple tons of coffee beans to make it up to him. If he is a Rider, however, and I'm not ready for the possibilitywell, then I suspect I would either regret it forever or regret it very briefly. Either way, though, I doubt it'll matter right now."

Raven hummed slightly in agreement, pursing her lips.

"What now, then?" She asked.

"Ironwood will call Ozpin and get my story confirmed," I answered. "That'll give us a way to meddle with Cinder's plans directly when the time comes, while not seeming to do so. It also gives us a potential ally when the time comes and another source of information. First the weapons, now the Paladinsin a way, even the Dust she's been stealing can be traced back here to Atlas. It may well just be that they're the best source for such a thingbut she's bound to have allies up here to facilitate that and she's likely left a trail behind her."

She nodded again.

"You mentioned my brother," She said after a moment.

"As I said, it seems Cinder hasn't gone unnoticed," I replied. "I don't know when or where it startedit might have been her actions in Mistral, her ties to Mountain Glenn, or something elsebut it seems we aren't the only ones aware that she's up to something. I suppose that's not surprising."

"It isn't?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," I said, sighing slightly. "In fact, Ozpin was the one who first tipped me off that something might be happening in Mistraland he did it a long time ago. When I questioned him later, he claimed he didn't know much about what was going on, but"

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Elemental Aura,' 'Summon Elemental,' and 'White Tiger of the West' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Indra' has been created.

For the fourth, it rose around me in a sudden cyclone, hiding me completely from sight before vanishing like the wind and leaving nothing behind.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Elemental Aura,' 'Summon Elemental,' and 'White Tiger of the West' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Vayu' has been created.

In the fifth, it didn't rise around me, so much as surround my body in stone until even my eyes had been coveredor perhaps turned intogemstones.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Elemental Aura,' 'Summon Elemental,' and 'White Tiger of the West' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Prithvi' has been created.

The sixth image was like the fifth, but instead of stone, it was metal that flowed over me. Iron covered my skin and liquid silver pooled in my eyes, while what seemed like solid gold flowed over my hair.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Elemental Aura,' 'Summon Elemental,' and 'White Tiger of the West' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Kubera' has been created.

And then, at last, the feeling faded, telling me that I was finished. I waited for a long moment just in case, but it didn't prompt me to try and merge any of my higher level Elementals, even when I began to merge themin all likelihood, because of Summon Elemental. The Elementals I was merging with Tiferet were my completed 'Basic' Elementals, rather than my Lesser ones. The latter would max out soon at this rate and I could try again, though if that didn't suffice, I might just have to level up the skills I'd just gotten and then combine them again.

The good news was that Tiferet had leveled up several times from that process. As skills went, it was very quick to improveprobably because it was also very hard to use. As each level it gained lowered the required skill level of things to be combined, several new options had opened up and I quickly continued my work.

Again, I saw myself, but I quickly began to shimmer and shift, as if caught in a heat haze, before vanishing like a mirage.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Acceleration' and 'Shedding of the Serpent's Skin' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Flux' has been created.

One more, I thoughtand looking over the sensation and the skills it was attached to, I hoped I'd saved the best for last. As I activated Tiferet for the ninth time, I saw myself.

Just myself.

And then the image was gone.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Adamant Serpent's Skin,' 'Armored Shell,' 'Cithaeron Hide,' 'Metamorphosis,' 'Physical Endurance,' and 'Unbroken Steel' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Kavacha' has been created.

At last, I opened my eyes.

"Done?" Raven asked, looking at me idly from her chair. We were in what I assumed was one of her safe houses, given how fortified it wasbut then, given that it was Raven, it could just as easily be her normal house.

"Done," I confirmed, looking down at myself. I had started sweating at some point in the process, which wasn't particularly surprising seeing as I'd basically turned my body into a forge. Thankfully, even with as deep as I'd been in my meditation, Pericognition meant I had still been aware of my surroundings on some level so I rose from my focus feeling relaxed and at ease. If anything had been going to hellmore so then usual, I meanI'd have noticed.

Even so, for the sake of standard human interactions, I glanced at Raven as I stood, cleaned myself with a brief application of Elemental Soul, and raised an eyebrow.

"Ironwood hasn't called him yet?" I asked.

Raven shook her head, looking at me distractedly.

"He seems to be waiting to return home," She said. "Presumably to make sure the area is secure before questioning his close friend on his deals with a wanted terrorist."

I smiled at that, evaporating the water on my skin with Kanju and drying myself.

"And Cinder?"

"Escaped," She replied. "She made it out without difficulty and without murdering anyone. It seems you were right about Ironwood."

"That's good," I mused, frowning slightly as I considered my options. Cinder would likely try to contact me again soon, which I'd need to account for, and I'd now added Ironwood to things. Given my tight schedule, I'd need to juggle things somewhat and insure everything was in place, as well as keep Cinder from becoming suspicious of either of my identities.

Well. From being more suspicious, at least. She knew that one of my selves was the reincarnation of her greatest enemy and thought the other was Conquest. There was only so much I could do.

"They've arrived," Raven said after another minute. "How far away should I make the portal?"

"A kilometer out should be fine," I replied. "But after Qrowgo for two or three, just to be safe. I'll hide it as soon as you make it."

She nodded and flicked her wrist once, opening a window back to Atlas.