Relic of the Future: Chapter 68, Chapter 72

When the man closed again, Hazel was at least ready. Prepared this time for trickery, he kept his guard high and blocked the first heavy slash, deflected the shield and even stepped into the man's guard. His own thrust had his fist clanging against the shield, something he'd never shown before. Jaune tucked it in close to his body and surged forward, more akin to a battering ram than a person.

Hazel grunted and caught it and the two struggled to push the other down, Hazel using two hands and Jaune his shoulder and one arm. The sword flailed above, trying to distract him, but Hazel ignored it. Without proper positioning and room to swing, it was nothing more than a piece of metal flapping around his shoulder.

Still, he was surprised the man could hold up in a test of strength.

Willpower aside, he was twice as heavy as Jaune Ashari. The competition should have been a short one. With the dust raging through his muscles, it should have been an even more foregone conclusion. And yet… Hazel's foot slid back.

"Impossible. That doesn't make sense."

There was skill, athleticism and ability that could exist in more than mere physicality, but strength was strength. He was bigger and stronger, so he shouldn't be the one giving ground no matter how furious Ashari was.

Something flickered past to his right.

Light.

Light was flashing out from the man's hand, from… was that a symbol?

It flared suddenly, fed by a ragged scream torn from the throat of Jaune Ashari. The light shone golden and tinged green, burning like a fire that blossomed into an inferno.

Hazel howled as it exploded between them, throwing his body through the air. He struck the wet ground and rolled, scrambling to his feet and bringing both arms up to stop a downward swing – only to find it, for once, absent. He wasn't the only one who had been knocked back, and his opponent was some thirty or forty feet away, laid flat on his side, one hand pushed down as he climbed to his knees. That same hand was surrounded by thin wisps of green-white smoke. Or perhaps motes of light.

"Ozpin…? No. He still lives within a body."

Hazel's eyes roamed higher, boring into the suddenly far more cognizant ones of Jaune Ashari. The shock had awakened him from his fury, it seemed, for he too was looking down at his hand in confusion.

"Who – what – are you? That power exists only within the Relics. The Relics and one man, one parasite that exists upon this world eternally. No one else has that power. Not even the maidens."

Jaune looked down at his hand. "I… I don't know…"

Lies.

They had to be. Salem was right to hunt him, to seek him. Such power couldn't – shouldn't – exist within this world. Hazel rose up, ready to cast aside his orders and kill the man before he could become more of a threat. He took hold of his final two dust vials, muscles tensing as his body rejected the thought of what he was about to do even before he had.

Before he could, Jaune Ashari fell face first into the mud, spent.

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 68



This wasn't his body. His body was in Ansel doing whatever his younger self was. His other was back in a different time, likely dead on the floor. This body was something constructed specifically by Salem using her magic. It was an object his soul had been pushed into. A vessel. In a way, he was like Penny.

In another weird way, he was like Salem's estranged son. The less thought on that the better. But if Salem had created him based on herself, then didn't it stand to reason his body more resembled that of these ancient people than modern man? He didn't feel all that different, but people worked with what they knew. If Salem had to make him a body, she had to create it from scratch and based on a blueprint in her head.

Had she, without really meaning to, given him the same potential as these people?

"Can I use magic…?"

He found the page spilled with blood and touched his fingers to it. The sigil burned on his hand, shining front and back and illuminating the page. Unlike in the temple, there was no vision to assault him. No trance or words whispered into his ears.

The explosion that saved Hazel's life had come from his hand. He wasn't sure if that was magic or not but `random explosion` certainly wasn't normal. At the time, he'd wanted nothing more than to kill his enemy. Had he somehow tried to do that and caused the explosion? Curious, he held his hand out and pushed aura to it. It glowed faintly – not the sigil, but his hand itself. Aura could do that, manifesting if you saturated one part of your body. Pyrrha had shown it to him before.

Nothing else happened. The aura bled out like it always did until he let go and it naturally swept back through him, evening out over his body like blood. Aura might be fuel for magic, if such existed in him, but it obviously didn't control it. Emotions, then? He'd been high on those against Hazel.

I can't have my hand constantly farting explosions whenever I get angry. If I can't control this, it's less than useless.

Picking up the tome, he carried it upstairs. Even if he couldn't understand the language, he could put Oobleck's words to good use and try to decipher the meaning behind the images. A shame the two people who could help him wouldn't. Ozpin kept magic hidden for a reason and Salem would kill him the first chance she had.

"Guess I'm figuring this out on my own."

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 72