Jaune's gaze swept methodically across the battlefield one final time as he stood upon Pyrrha's metallic platform, allowing his senses to absorb the rapidly shifting flow of the conflict.
Carnis' arrival had changed everything.
He still didn't understand why the Sleepless Team Leader had assumed such an abhorrent form, nor how flesh, Grimm and humanity had become intertwined so completely, but considering Carnis's runes, it wasn't an impossibility.
One consequence of his arrival, however, was immediately obvious.
The thunderous command that had rolled across the battlefield had been obeyed without hesitation. Every Sleepless operative within sight had broken away from their engagements almost simultaneously, abandoning battles they had been fighting and retreating toward the colossal cliff dominating the moon's interior.
One after another they sprinted toward the precipice before throwing themselves over its edge without the slightest hesitation, vanishing into the immeasurable abyss below as though leaping willingly into the jaws of some waiting god. Their sudden withdrawal immediately freed countless LUCID awakened.
Rank Twos who had moments earlier been locked in desperate duels found themselves abruptly without human opponents, while the Rank Ones were likewise relieved from fighting Sleepless operatives and could finally direct their full attention toward the Grimm surrounding them.
Unfortunately, that realization brought no comfort. The Grimm themselves showed absolutely no intention of retreating. If anything, their assault only intensified. Jaune could see fresh hordes pouring across distant sections of the moon's surface, black tides converging relentlessly upon the battlefield from every conceivable direction.
Beowolves emerged in endless packs, Ursa thundered across the crimson landscape, Nevermores filled the skies overhead while serpentine Grimm slithered between shattered rock formations. The numbers were staggering.
Yet, when he considered the situation objectively, it made perfect sense. Every awakened drawn into this realm was instinctively converging toward the massive chasm leading into the moon's core. But where awakened gathered, Grimm naturally followed. It was no different from sharks scenting blood in the ocean. The heartbeat beneath the moon summoned humanity toward its source, while humanity's very existence summoned the Grimm. Inevitably, every force upon the moon had become concentrated around this single location where the final descent would begin.
The final battle.
Without another thought, Jaune casually threw away the unconscious Sleepless operative he had been holding in his grasp. The limp body struck the crimson stone before rolling several times to a stop, its vacant eyes staring upward without recognition.
There was nothing left inside the man capable of understanding where he was or what had happened. He had become another empty shell left behind by Plunder.
Turning away from him completely, Jaune looked toward Pyrrha, whose metallic platform was carrying them swiftly across the battlefield while nearby Rank Twos engaged the ever-growing Grimm horde.
His expression became calm and purposeful.
"Pyrrha, converge with Nora for a bit and wait for the other awakened groups to join up with you guys. If you can, wait at least fifteen minutes before you lot head down the cliffs. That should be enough time before things really go to shit."
His voice carried easily over the howling winds surrounding them.
The instruction left her momentarily speechless.
Before Jaune could depart, she reached forward and caught hold of his arm. The movement was quick enough that most awakened would have struggled to react, yet Jaune could have avoided it effortlessly.
He simply chose not to.
Some moments deserved to happen and some words needed to be spoken regardless of the battlefield surrounding them. Pyrrha searched his face carefully before asking,
"Wait, Jaune... what do you mean by that?"
Her question carried far more weight than the simple words suggested. She wasn't merely asking about the fifteen minutes. She was asking how he could possibly know what would happen next.
Jaune glanced briefly toward the abyss stretching beneath the moon before answering with quiet honesty.
"It'll take too long to explain, but my chat with my dad went far better than I thought it would, and there are certain things about the future that I'm aware of. Blake, Yang, Ren, Ruby and Weiss should all be here shortly."
He paused only briefly before continuing.
"There are also going to be a bunch of other Sleepless members coming by as well. Try to stall them or beat them if you can. Once it gets too problematic, jump down into the core. That's where the final battle is going to be occurring, anyhow."
Pyrrha remained silent for several moments as she absorbed everything he had just told her. Eventually she frowned faintly, uncertainty mixing with disbelief.
"That's quite... something."
Jaune couldn't help smiling reassuringly. There were so many things he wanted to tell her. Too many. Conversations that should have happened months ago.
Apologies.
Explanations.
Laughter.
The simple comfort of speaking without the weight of the world pressing down upon them. Yet none of those belonged here.
"Listen," he said gently, "there's time to catch up later. I promise. There are a lot of things that I want to say to you and everyone else, but right now..."
He looked toward the chasm where Carnis had just disappeared into.
"...we just don't have time."
Pyrrha slowly exhaled before lifting her gaze fully toward him. For the first time since his return, she truly looked into his eyes rather than merely at his face. The brilliant blue remained unchanged, yet everything behind them had transformed.
Months ago she had known Jaune as an earnest young man whose determination constantly battled overwhelming odds. He had stumbled, learned and risen again through sheer stubbornness.
Now something far deeper resided within him.
His eyes possessed extraordinary depth, as though they contained experiences measured not in months but lifetimes.
Conviction burned there with frightening intensity.
There was no hesitation, uncertainty or fear of what lay ahead.
Whatever waited within the moon's core, Jaune had already accepted it completely. If mountains blocked his path, he would break them. If oceans rose against him, he would cross them. If the Sleeper herself stood before him, then she too would become merely another obstacle destined to fall.
It reminded Pyrrha of staring into the deepest parts of the world's oceans.
Endless and calm.
Unfathomably powerful.
A strange sensation travelled slowly down her spine, somewhere between awe and anticipation. She suddenly found herself believing something she had never consciously considered before.
'Sleeper... if anybody can stop you... it would have to be him.'
The thought appeared so naturally that she scarcely questioned it.
Finally she spoke again.
"Alright... where are you going?"
Jaune's smile returned, carrying just a hint of familiar mischief despite the circumstances.
"Why, I'm just gonna go have a chat with a certain black bird. See you later."
He turned slightly before adding almost as an afterthought,
"Oh, and supposedly Adam will be coming here soon too. Help Blake defeat him and get the answers that Blake wants out of that bastard."
Pyrrha blinked.
"...what?"
The single word had scarcely escaped her lips before Jaune disappeared. Pyrrha stared at the empty air where he had stood only moments earlier, thoughtful uncertainty replacing her earlier astonishment.
During the preceding battles she had witnessed him repeatedly crossing impossible distances in an instant. At first she assumed he had stolen some variation of a teleportation rune through Plunder.
Before Jaune vanished months ago, he had had theorized that once Plunder reached comprehension it might eventually steal runic energy directly, allowing its wielder temporary access to another person's abilities.
She had seen evidence supporting exactly that throughout the battle. Yet instinct whispered otherwise. Something fundamental felt different whenever Jaune moved. Her awakened senses couldn't quite define it, only recognize that the phenomenon extended beyond simple theft. She suspected the answer lay within his Rank Two rune, whatever incredible rune he had ultimately created.
More unsettling still was what her own rune perceived. Ferrous granted her exquisite awareness over metal and the iron flowing through living bodies. Ordinarily every heartbeat surrounding her appeared as distinct currents beneath her perception.
Jaune however, simply didn't have it. Standing directly beside him, she could no longer sense his blood at all. It was as though nothing existed where his physical body stood. Reality itself insisted that he occupied that space, but her rune continuously insisted it was empty.
The contradiction unsettled her more than any impossible teleportation power ever could. And that was just one mystery. She wasn't sure how he was turning enemies into vegetative states or how he was moving so incredibly fast that he appeared like a blur in her eyes.
Not to mention how runes, when hitting him, seemed completely useless. Like a drop of water striking a rock.
After a long sigh, she dismissed the mysteries for later and immediately launched herself toward the nearest Rank Two Grimm, her spear flashing once more as battle reclaimed her attention.
Jaune, meanwhile, moved through the battlefield by continuously Plundering space itself. Each transition consumed enormous quantities of Aura despite how effortless it appeared externally. The pseudo-teleportation represented one of the most extravagant applications of his abilities. Strictly speaking, Plunder itself possessed very little authority over space.
Such larger manipulation only became possible because Null was quietly dismantling the conceptual laws preventing it.
Reality attempted to reject what he was doing every single time, and Aura served as the price demanded for forcing existence to accept the impossible. Under ordinary circumstances such expenditure would have rendered the technique hopelessly inefficient.
Yet this battlefield provided him with an inexhaustible source of temporary reserves. Every Sleepless operative and Grimm he stripped of their stats energy replenished his Aura enough to offset much of the cost, allowing him to continue exploiting spatial Plunder far more freely than any normal awakened ever could.
Moments later he emerged high above the battlefield in precisely calculated fashion, arriving during the single instant a gigantic black crow swept beneath him through the crimson skies. His shoes landed cleanly atop the enormous creature's head as it continued pursuing Carnis without losing the slightest momentum.
Ahead of them, the grotesque worm had already descended over the edge of the immense chasm and now plunged deeper into the moon's interior, weaving effortlessly between floating continental fragments while blood-red rivers of runic energy illuminated its monstrous flesh.
Taiyang's colossal Eastern Dragon pursued immediately behind, while Qrow's gigantic crow remained only slightly to one side. As Jaune settled his footing, the flesh atop the crow's head rippled before parting. Qrow himself emerged from within it, stepping casually onto the feathers as though standing upon solid earth. Beneath them, the gigantic crow never faltered. Jaune immediately understood. The immense bird served merely as one of Qrow's Murder clones, while the man standing before him remained the original body directing everything.
Qrow inclined his head slightly.
"Jaune. Haven't seen you in a while. How was the intel?"
Jaune nodded.
"Good. Sleepless were extremely good at covering their tracks, but I was able to dismantle a bunch of their artificial Amalgamation operations."
A faint expression of frustration crossed his face.
"My dad, however, was always thirty steps ahead of me. I could never find any of the Team Leaders despite how hard I tried."
Qrow gave a dry chuckle.
"Fair. His Foresight rune makes things unfair."
Silence settled briefly between them as the gigantic crow continued diving through the moon's hollow interior. Neither gravity nor the rushing winds seemed capable of disturbing them while they stood calmly atop the living construct.
Jaune quietly observed Qrow from the corner of his eye.
Through Weakness, emotions appeared almost like subtle conceptual fractures. Regret. Self-reproach. A lingering bitterness directed inward. Qrow hid them well from the outside world, yet Jaune perceived them clearly.
He frowned slightly.
"You alright, Qrow?"
The older man looked away for a moment before shaking his head.
"I'll let you know later."
Rather than elaborating, he pointed ahead toward Carnis, whose grotesque body continued smashing effortlessly through smaller floating moon fragments while swerving around larger ones.
"You can affect minds and steal runic energy now, right? Can you do anything about him?"
Jaune followed his gaze before answering thoughtfully.
"Yes... and no. Technically speaking, Carnis' mind isn't really his own anymore. I can affect his runes, however."
Qrow frowned.
"What?"
Jaune considered how best to explain.
"The Rank 3 Sleepless Leader, Tyrian, possesses a powerful Master rune that was built from a meta rune called Puppeteer. He used it on Carnis a long time ago."
Jaune paused for a moment.
"Carnis, while he's still technically a living person, doesn't really have a mind of his own anymore. He's closer to a programmed construct than an actual consciousness, even if he does seem like a real living person. Or rather... it might be easier if you think of him as an biological AI of sorts. He has a personality and mind, but not in the way that you and I might have."
Qrow frowned at that.
"Nicholas told you that?"
"Yeah.
"Are you sure that... we can trust your father's words? He... was still a part of Sleepless wasn't he?"
Jaune paused for a moment then considered the answer.
"My weakness rune can detect emotions. I know how sincere a person is, if they're lying or if they're withholding information. It might not be as strong as an Insight rune, but as a meta rune, it's pretty damned unbeatable."
"Right..." Qrow sighed. "Sorry for doubting... it's just..."
"I know. There are some other reasons in which I can confirm that he isn't lying, but it would be too hard to explain. Long story short, it had something to do with my new rune."
Qrow nodded, seemingly satisfied for now.
Jaune then continued, pointing to Carnis.
"In any case... I can't steal what isn't there."
His expression sharpened slightly.
"But if we're talking about his runic energy... I'll do you one better. You designated him as your Murder target, right?"
Qrow nodded immediately.
"If he dies to me, I'll reach Mastery."
Jaune fell silent.
There were many different ways in reaching Mastery and comprehension in runes. For some people, practice and constant use of runes through hard work, would naturally increase their understanding. For some others, life and death experiences or emotional changes like stress could give birth to an comprehensive understanding. Jaune himself, could plunder the understanding of others and utilize it for himself—essentially utilizing cross comprehension of others' runes to boost his own understanding of his own runes.
Qrow's Murder rune was a little different in terms of meta runes. For him to gain comprehension and Mastery, he needed to commit the act of Murder in order to boost his understanding. And he had set the terms of Murder, long ago towards Carnis. A person who he had fought time and time again, yet kept losing to.
Should Qrow kill him, Murder would finally reach Mastery.
According to his father's future sight, Carnis wasn't technically supposed to die here. That thread of fate had remained stubbornly fixed. Yet Jaune himself existed outside those predictions. Null severed him from the framework through which Nicholas observed the future.
Every decision Jaune made represented genuine uncertainty, a variable no foresight could perfectly calculate. If ever there existed an opportunity to overturn fate entirely, perhaps this was it. He looked toward Qrow once more.
"Can you reach Rank Three?"
Qrow met his gaze evenly.
"Murder's the only rune left. Then, all that's left is merging my three runes into a Master Rune."
Jaune nodded slowly. Half-step Rank Three at minimum. Combined with Raven, who almost certainly had reached Mastery in Ending following her own brush with death earlier, humanity's strength would increase dramatically before the true battle even began.
Weakness lacked the precision of Insight, so Jaune couldn't confirm Raven's exact progress, but the possibility alone justified the risk. His decision settled almost instantly.
"Consider it done." He shifted his stance slightly before looking toward Taiyang's massive Dragon form streaking ahead through the crimson-lit void.
"Give me a boost to Taiyang."
Qrow required no further explanation. He pivoted smoothly before driving an immensely powerful kick directly toward Jaune.
Rather than resisting, Jaune stepped perfectly into the strike, using its momentum as though it were another platform beneath his feet. The instant Qrow's kick connected, Jaune launched himself forward with explosive speed, hurtling across the vast distance separating him from the Dragon.
Wind and crimson runic currents screamed past as he accelerated through the hollow moon.
"Taiyang!" he shouted above the roaring air. "Dragon's breath!"
The colossal Eastern Dragon turned one blazing golden eye toward him in immediate understanding before opening its jaws. A magnificent torrent of incandescent fire erupted forward, engulfing Jaune completely.
Null rendered the inferno utterly harmless. Instead of burning him, the immense beam became a river of force that caught his body and propelled him even faster toward the grotesque worm racing ahead.
Wrapped within the Dragon's own breath like a living spear of flame, Jaune Arc shot directly toward Carnis.