Relic of the Future: Chapter 157

Jaune took a step forward, his hand still held out. "That's why I'm confident this will work. That's why I'm doing this. It worked once already. It can work agai-"

Jaune swayed back as a bolt of green light speared past his nose. It burned a trail of hot magic across his cheek. Even before it hit the wall, Ozpin's cane swung into Crocea Mors, spraying a shower of sparks as he was pushed back on uneven footing.

Ozpin's face was in his, teeth bared in a rictus of fury. "I won!? I won and killed Salem and you – you changed it!? You let her change it!?"

"O-Ozpin…"

"You fool!" he roared, releasing Jaune's sword and slamming an open palm into his stomach. Something ice cold shot through Jaune's veins, twisting inside his body. His Semblance reacted instantly, forcing out the foreign invasion of magic. It didn't stop Ozpin wrenching him aside and throwing him across the room, nor parrying Raven's attack on his back and kicking her away.

"Gah!" Raven crashed into his desk and slid down the front.

"Ozpin! Stop!"

"Stop? Stop!? I finally finished her – I finally ended this nightmare – and you gave her the perfect way out. You've ruined everything!"

"The cost was too much!" Jaune shouted. "Hundreds of thousands dead, the Kingdoms in disarray, everyone from Beacon killed-"

"All of which could be rebuilt! All of which would repair itself in time without her presence holding humanity back! It was a victory, Ashari! No, Arc!" Ozpin stormed forward, eyes glowing with eldritch fire. "It was a victory of the highest order and you, in your petty selfishness, have robbed the world of it!"

Shit. He hadn't thought Ozpin would be pleased but this reaction was too much. Jaune staggered to his feet, shaking his head and bringing Crocea Mors up in one hand. His other hung free, blue light and steam rising from Salem's sigil on the back of his palm.

[...]

Ozpin was on him. Jaune parried the first blow and side-stepped the next. Crocea Mors lashed out, but Ozpin was no longer confined to an old and tired body. He bent back lithely, letting the blade pass overhead. Snapping up again, he flicked his cane out in a feint that Jaune avoided, then hurled another spell at him close range. It struck Crocea Mors and the metal shone blindingly, Everything began to heat up – the metal, the leather grip and his thick gloves.

Raven appeared behind Ozpin and thrust in at his back. She may as well have been trying to kill them both with an attack like that. Ozpin jumped up and kicked off Jaune's chest, passing over Raven's head and forcing her to check her attack lest she hit him. With her back to Ozpin, she was entirely unprepared for him to send out a green blast of energy. It sent her hurtling into Jaune, knocking them both back several metres.

"He wasn't this strong in your memories!" Raven hissed.

"Something's changed."

Jaune's eyes widened, and he kicked Raven off him, then rolled aside as Ozpin's own desk crashed down on their location. It exploded on impact with the ground, showering him with splinters. Ozpin came through the storm, jabbing at his chest, thighs and chin with short, precise thrusts. Faster than Weiss had ever been with her rapier.

How? Oscar was never this strong and no matter how skilled Ozma is, he's still trapped in the body of a young boy. Oscar shouldn't have the muscle mass or endurance for this kind of combat.

Maybe he didn't. This wasn't Ozpin's body, so perhaps he was pushing it to breaking without a care in the world. What was one boy's life compared to stopping their plan? If so, Oscar's body would soon break under the pressure. They just had to outlast him.

Just had to survive.

There was no doubt in him that Ozpin wanted them dead. Him especially. Gone was the calm, understanding look in the man's old eyes. It was replaced with cold fire, something that might have once represented the true anger and passion of the man he'd once been. The normal, human, knight who saved Salem and founded the Del'Ashari. Maybe this was the real Ozpin. The real Ozma. There wasn't time to marvel at it.

Duck under a swing, parry a kick with his shin, step back, divert Ozpin's hand away before another spell could hit him, swing, check, parry and constantly try to manoeuvre his slippery opponent so Raven could get a shot in on his back.

Not easy. What Ozpin may have lacked in a capable body, he made up for with thousands of years' experience. There was no wasted movement or overly complicated techniques, only a cold and calculated efficiency. He was small enough to slip under Jaune's arm whenever Raven tried to attack, placing Jaune between the two of them and forcing her to look for another approach.

"Ozpin!" Jaune panted, fending off another barrage of blows. "Please listen, we can fix this! We can still work together."

Ozpin's lips remained a thin line, eyes cold and angry. He threw his cane at Raven and waited for her to swing up and deflect it. That was his moment to hurl four knife-like shards of green magic at her. She had the time to reverse her swing and knock two out the air but the other two struck her left shoulder and arm respectively, searing through her clothing and aura with terrifying ease.

"Arghhh!"

"Raven!"

Jaune swung down on the now unarmed boy in a strike that would have cleaved him head to toe. When Ozpin casually stepped aside, he did so into Jaune's fist. Crocea Mors went abandoned – too slow and clumsy against so small and quick an opponent. Jaune grabbed the boy's arms instead. Whatever his experience, Ozpin was stuck in Oscar's body and wouldn't be able to outmuscle someone twice his size.

His hands caught one of Ozpin's wrists and his other arm snaked around the boy's shoulders and neck, dragging him back against his chest. Ozpin slammed his elbow back and his heel down, but Jaune was prepared for it and accepted the pain. His arm tightened on Ozpin's neck, searching for that sweet spot where he could perform a blood choke and put him out in seconds. While he did, Raven lunged forward surrounded by crackling electricity, deciding two methods of incapacitation were better than one.

That was when their feet left the floor. Flight was a magic Jaune hadn't even considered possible, but suddenly they were surging upwards with the floor and Raven left below in shock. Their bodies angled forward, accelerating suddenly until they smashed into the ceiling. Air was driven out of Jaune's lungs, but he tightened his grip all the same, suffocating Ozpin the old-fashioned way. He locked his other hand over his arm, sealing his muscles tight over the boy's windpipe. He was already gasping for air.

I'm sorry, Oscar. You don't deserve this!

They were moving again suddenly, scraping across the ceiling and grinding Jaune's back into it as they went. His head struck a light fixture and snapped back, but even then he refused to let go. Ozpin carried them on until Jaune saw the wall coming. He pushed all his aura to his head and shoulders, tightened his grip again and prepared for impact.

It was like he'd become a battering ram. His entire world exploded in bright lights, followed by black. Consciousness flickered for a second. Without aura, he'd have broken his neck immediately. It hurt all the same. Stars danced before his eyes as the world shifted and changed. They were on the wall now, Ozpin turning them so that Jaune's back was to it and then throwing them against it.

Into it?

Jaune's eyes widened as he felt the metal gears on his back. The clockwork wall of Ozpin's office! That realisation lasted only a second before dull, rusty cogs bit into and ground through his shoulder. Aura came up against machine – the cogs powered by motors that would not stop, could not stop, and coming up against the power of the soul that did much the same.

The result was like grinding two pieces of solid metal together. Sparks flew, a horrible, twisted sound filled the room and both the cogs and Jaune's body began to heat up.

And he screamed. Loudly.

Ozpin pushed him further in, submerging him in the machinery. His left foot caught in something that tried to suck him down and in, while his spine was assaulted by the clunk, clunk, clunk of a piston determined to break through his bones. Ozpin was going to grind him to paste, aura or no.

Despite it, Jaune kept going, kept strangling him.

I have… to hold on…

Metal ground and popped. The cog which couldn't turn against his shoulder forced problems back down the chain, each rotating cog stressing and straining backwards until something slipped. A huge cogwheel the size of a person exploded out from the wall with incredible force, narrowly missing Raven. The sudden hole in the system caused another gear to have nothing holding it in place. It fell with a mighty clang.

From there it was a chain reaction of grinding metal and machinery. Like a taut string coiled on itself a hundred times and suddenly let go, spinning backwards and out of control. Something exploded in a loud bang and more machinery burst outward. The ones around and behind them did the same, suddenly spinning off Jaune's shoulder and launching them into the open air. A heavy chunk of metal struck the back of his skull.

Aura or not, the impact rattled his brain. Every muscle in his body went slack and Ozpin took his chance to escape, heaving for air and holding his neck with one hand. Before he could recover, he brought up a green shield to protect himself from another violently bouncing cogwheel. The clockface that had once made up the wall of his office was a mess of broken and twisted machinery. In the middle of that, pinned to the wall behind all of it and now exposed, lay a simple golden crown.

The Relic of Choice.

Jaune groaned and unsteadily pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He wasn't sure if he was concussed or not. The world was spinning. Suddenly, it took a more violent twist and the floor came up to punch him in the cheek. It took another second for him to realise that was because Ozpin had kicked him in the jaw.

Where was Raven…? Jaune's bleary eyes looked past Ozpin to see the Spring Maiden nursing her left arm with her right hand, the limb covered in blood. There was a huge, copper wheel buried into the wall behind her, which must have struck with the force of a speeding car. Raven was on her ass, legs shaking, and eyes clenched tightly shut. With her final strength, she picked up her sword and slashed wildly at the air.

Ozpin panted for breath, walking forward and stooping to pick up Crocea Mors. He was holding it wrong, more like a cane than a sword. Jaune tried to push himself up again, but his shoulder wouldn't respond. He toppled onto his side, spewing vomit onto the floor.

Definitely a concussion. Come on, get up. Move!

His body responded sluggishly. His vision was swimming and he felt lightheaded, as if he were standing at the edge of a tall cliff and the vertigo had come running.

"Close, Mr Arc." Ozpin said. "You are several thousand years too inexperienced to face me, however."

"Y-You weren't this strong…" Jaune wheezed.

"In your last timeline? I would imagine not. If I had no time to prepare and only to plot one last gambit then my host's body would have had little time to acclimatise to me. As I said before, things have changed. You gave me time. You gave me the chance to train this body up, to shape it. Oscar and I are one now. Something I infer did not happen in your time."

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 157