Relic of the Future: Chapter 163

Slowly, those surrounding the huge Grimm began to back away. Those fighting at range continued to keep its attention, blasting away at its face and shoulders. Freed from the huntsmen harassing it, the beast started to slam and sweep with its arms again, lashing out in every direction and ripping up great chunks of rock and dirt. Jaune had to duck under a boulder it accidentally hurled his way. It crashed down behind and showered him and Qrow in pebbles and flecks of dust.

Dust? Looking back, Jaune's eyes widened on seeing the crystalline substance running all the way through the boulder. Veins like that were the kind of things the SDC would kill for and were supposedly only found deep beneath the surface. For this to have so much that even the ground they were on was laden was ridiculous.

Is it another of the caverns Summer and I explored? One of Ozma and Salem's dust farms? It would make sense. Ozpin had kept his secret by leaving them in hidden locations locked behind sealed temple doors. Why would Salem bother with that when she can just kill anyone who comes near?

If that were the case, then this thing might have been born of one of the rivers of pure Grimm essence dripping from so much crystalised dust. It might very well be the river given form. That chasm it had come out of might be a direct line down to all that dust.

The roar of engines in the air behind them brought Jaune back to life. His eyes widened, Salem's plan finally kicking in. She hadn't underestimated them at all. She had known exactly what they would do and how to take advantage of it.

"RUN!" Jaune screamed. "EVERYONE RUN!"

His fear must have shown. Huntsmen and huntresses looked back, uncertain, but as those loyal to Atlas and who had been ordered to follow his instructions complied, group behaviour kicked in. Those not from Atlas assumed those running away had seen something they hadn't. More followed, then more and more until the last ones didn't want to be the only people not running away, and so joined the retreat as well.

Over the cracked ground, past the broken anti-air weapons and the bodies of Tyrian's fanatics, away from thrown rocks and boulders and the Grimm behind. Jaune's feet kept pounding even as four jets whooshed by overheard and unleashed their missiles. The dust weapons corkscrewed through the air and struck the monster's chest and head, exploding and knocking it back. Its thick, tar-like skin caught fire and burned, making it look even more like a demon.

The aircraft wheeled off and away. In the distance, the armada shifted noticeably. The side of the fleet opened up to reveal a single ship – large, but seemingly small in the distance – glowing a pale shade of blue. It burned like a neutron star, the light intensifying until it drowned out the gunfire and explosions surrounding it. Even from miles away, a threatening buzzing sound reached Jaune's ears. A him that grew in intensity, becoming almost deafening.

The air crackled, filled with static electricity.

"DOWN!"

Jaune leapt. Qrow did the same, and two hundred huntsmen and huntresses followed suit. In the distance, Ironwood's latest weapon seemed to blink. And then they all did. Or maybe the world blinked. All Jaune knew was that for a brief fraction of a second the world went black. Something had passed by overhead, but he couldn't process it. Couldn't see it. His eyes were spotty and splotchy, dark spots rendering him blind.

Then, a full two seconds later, a mighty thoom echoed in the air, rupturing eardrums and leaving his own ringing. Even that was late, he knew. Light travelled faster than sound. Looking back, Jaune saw the monstrous golem toppling back, its maw open, its arms falling from a body rent into literal pieces and burning. Behind it still, a giant and circular hole had been cut through the centre of Salem's tower.

Without a sound, or perhaps they were simply deafened to it, the beast's flaming body fell back into the chasm that had spawned it. Jaune's mouth opened and closed. He wasn't sure why he shouted the warning because nothing could be heard. Not his own voice, not the sound of the Grimm roaring, not the sound of the flames falling back into a cavern whose walls were laced with crystallised dust.

Thousands of tonnes of raw dust. Tens of thousands of tonnes – dust in its purest form, undistilled and undiluted by the SDC. Dust mining was said to be dangerous not because of poor working conditions but because of how volatile dust could be. One knock, one misplaced impact, one lick of a lantern's flame and the whole shaft could go down. This was no mining shaft laced with thin veins of dust. This was a world of crystal, farmed and preserved for thousands of years. The ground beneath them buckled, cracked and split.

And then it exploded upwards.

/-/

"Twenty-six dead, forty badly injured – twelve in intensive. Ninety-five with lighter injuries, mostly burns. All in all, there are still over a hundred huntsmen available for combat." General Ironwood lowered the report. "You did the best you could given the circumstances. This isn't a loss."

Jaune didn't respond, face in his hands and head held down. His hearing was still muted, his aura low, his body covered in scrapes, cuts and burnt scraps of clothing. Alive. Hurt badly, but alive.

It was more than could be said for some. From up top, from the airships they'd been evacuated to, the giant crater in front of Salem's tower continued to burn, the dust within making for what felt like almost limitless fuel. The chasm had been far larger than the other. Ironwood's men had estimated it as measuring three kilometres long and two wide and at least two deep as well. It was a jagged, ovoid, burning entrance to the underworld now. At least that was what it looked like.

"There's no telling how much dust was down there. Some of the engineers are putting the estimate at over a hundred thousand tonnes. I heard one of them throw the figure thirteen-trillion lien around." Ironwood grunted. "Jacques will pass out."

Jaune wasn't surprised. The dust caverns that he and Summer had walked through had been stunning, literal walls of pure, crystal dust. These were just as old, and likely better protected. If the Grimm pools were at the surface here, then it was only proof of just how much dust there was below ground acting as the spring. This would have easily been two to three times larger than the one in Vale, and Salem had knowingly blown it up.

[...]

"It was like a wall of fire." James said. "We could see every bit of it even from two miles out. I imagine people all the way in Vacuo could have seen it. We're lucky this many lived. It's only because of your warning that they did at all."

[...]

James gripped his shoulder and shook him. "If you hadn't called for the retreat, not a single person would have survived. Not one." He stared Jaune in the eye. "Remember that."

"Jimmy's right." Qrow looked worse for wear, some of his hair burnt off and his face clean shaven for once. It had to be for the medical teams to treat the burn along the left side of his jaw.

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 163