The cracked road split in places as a massive scorpion like beast scuttled across the street, its many legs punching holes into asphalt already weakened by neglect and decay. The creature dwarfed the surrounding houses, its armored body stretching the length of a small building, its width broad enough to crush entire rooms with a careless shift of weight. Each step erased what little remained of the neighborhood, walls collapsing inward, roofs folding like paper.
Ahead of it ran a much smaller figure.
The figure flickered.
Once visible, then gone. A stuttering presence that appeared just long enough to show the flash of dual daggers before dissolving into distortion. The figure reappeared atop a broken fence, vanished again, then resurfaced near a streetlight that had long since stopped pretending to work.
The Deathstalker screeched, its many eyes locking onto the prey. With a sudden burst of speed that belied its size, it launched forward, earth shattering force propelling it across the road. Its massive pincers swung wide, black reddish energy discharging from within them like liquid lightning. The energy expanded outward, forming colossal black and red spectral pincers layered over the physical ones.
They snapped shut and a row of houses exploded.
Walls were cut cleanly, roofs sheared away, and debris was scattered in a cloud of ash and broken memory. The Deathstalker paused, its body settling and mandibles clicking as it searched for its target.
Then it turned.
It never saw what came next.
The ground beneath it rippled as if the street had become water for just a moment.
A shape surged upward from below, bursting through the surface like a swimmer breaching the surface of a dark sea. A massive force detonated beneath the Deathstalker's body, launching the beast skyward. Electricity exploded outward in a violent gout, crawling over its bone carapace armor in branching arcs of white blue light.
"Geronimo!"
Nora's voice rang out with unrestrained delight as she landed in a crouch, her warhammer crackling with residual energy. She lifted her head, one hand shading her eyes as she watched the colossal creature flip helplessly through the air.
The Deathstalker tumbled, legs flailing, pincers snapping uselessly at empty space. Its many eyes struggled to track everything at once.
That was when it saw a teenager hovering in air, suspended for a heartbeat against the red stained sky. His shoulder length hair drifted slightly as if touched by an unseen current. His expression was calm and focused.
Jaune Arc raised his dual swords.
Moonlight and blood red glow slid along their edges as he crossed the blades before him. The Deathstalker twisted midair, energy flaring as it swung its massive pincers forward in a desperate attempt to crush him.
Steel met energy and the impact rang like a bell struck underwater.
Jaune cut forward.
The blades bit deep into the spectral pincers, carving through the energy and into the physical armor beneath. The resistance was immense, enough that the strike should have stopped there.
Yet, it did not.
The force echoed. Once, then twice, pressure surging again, and again driving the blades deeper. The strikes layered atop the first, will reinforcing will, intent stacking upon itself like a perfectly timed heartbeat.
A third echo rippled through the strike, imperfect but present.
In an extraordinary release of power, the Deathstalker suddenly split apart.
Two equal halves separated cleanly, momentum carrying them past Jaune as the energy sustaining the creature collapsed inward. The pieces fell, crashing into opposite sides of the street, sending shockwaves through the ground.
Jaune dropped lightly to the asphalt, boots skidding only slightly as he absorbed the landing. He straightened, blades lowering as the echoes faded.
The street went quiet.
Then Nora pumped a fist into the air. "Ten out of ten launch. New personal best."
She stretched lazily and set her warhammer down, the head embedding slightly into the pavement. "It's super weird to swim through ground like water though. Wish my rune was at that level too."
From behind Jaune, Oscar emerged from cover, eyes wide as he stared at the bisected remains of the Deathstalker. "Damn... aura echo is… really strong in practice."
Ren stepped out beside him, gaze already sweeping the surroundings, posture composed as ever. "Indeed. It's a powerful skill to learn, Jaune. Perhaps I should look into learning it too?"
Jaune nodded, exhaling slowly. "Yeah, it's not bad but it's hard to align my Will cleanly with the force. Making the echo feel like a second strike instead of a continuation takes… a lot of precision. More than I'd like."
He flexed his fingers, faint phantom pressure still lingering in his arms. "I can barely manage three echoes consistently. Even then, the third is somewhat unstable."
He glanced upward, as if the Nightmare system itself might be listening. "Too bad the Will stat caps at ten. Which is… unfortunate."
Ren crouched slightly, examining the edge of the street where the Deathstalker had emerged. He straightened, pointing toward the far end of the road.
"There," he said.
Black mist churned in the distance, thick and oily, drifting with slow purpose. Red specks pulsed within it, like embers suspended in smoke. The zone warped the air around it, buildings at its edge bending subtly, as though unsure of their own existence.
"Rank two Nightmare zone," Ren said calmly. "We need to call it in. A Rank two should take over."
Nora leaned her hammer against her shoulder. "Aw. But we were just getting warmed up."
Ren ignored that.
He turned to Jaune. "Do you have enough now?"
Jaune closed his eyes briefly, feeling the familiar internal shift as the system acknowledged the kill. The rune count ticked upward, settling neatly where he needed it to be.
"Yes," Jaune said. "Enough."
Ren nodded once. "Are you going to make your rune now?"
Jaune shook his head. "No. I want to do it at the LUCID base."
Oscar tilted his head. "Any particular reason?"
Jaune smiled faintly. "Ruby and Pyrrha said they wanted to watch. Probably to see if I will mess it up."
Ren cupped his chin "Hmm. I remember them having a bet with Yang about it?"
Jaune groaned. "Of course they did."
Nora grinned. "She gave you decent odds."
Ren allowed himself a small smirk. "Statistically speaking, that implies confidence."
Jaune narrowed his eyes at them. "Wow. That was almost a joke. And seriously, did you guys really join in? What'd you bet for, success or failure?"
Ren's smirk deepened by a millimeter. "Now that would be telling wouldn't it?" Nora however simply mimed zipping her mouth shut and throwing the zipper key away.
Jaune shook his head in amusement.
.
.
The atmosphere in the sim room was heavy, as if the air itself had decided to pay attention.
Jaune stood at the center of the chamber on smooth obsidian flooring that reflected faint, shifting patterns of light. This particular room was vast and circular, its boundaries fading into soft darkness like an unfinished thought. Runic glow pulsed gently along the walls, reacting to the presence of awakened minds. Around him stood his friends, fresh from patrols, armor slightly scuffed yet smiling, still riding the adrenaline of recent battles.
They were here to witness Jaune creating another meta rune.
Jaune, however, felt removed from their anticipation. His attention folded inward, drawn toward the quiet pressure building behind his eyes.
A flick of thought brought up his status screen.
.
[Jaune Arc]
[Rank: 1]
.
Aura: 10
Will: 10
Body: 10
.
Runes: 100
Rune Skill: [Weakness]
.
He had enough rune fragments.
The knowledge sat in his chest like a locked door with the key already in his hand. All that remained was intent.
He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes.
'Create Rune'
The Nightmare system responded immediately.
.
[Request acknowledged]
[Rune Creation Sequence Initiated]
.
A curious sensation, brushed across the surface of his thoughts. It was subtle, yet invasive, like a careful hand. It did not demand or instruct, simply asking an invisible question.
What are you trying to make?
Images surfaced unbidden.
Jaune saw himself standing across from Qrow, explaining Aura Echo. How Will was not just a stat but insistence manifest. How the world bent not because it was weak, but because it needed to be forcefully convinced.
"When you release your Will stat upon the world, you are telling reality that your soul has weight," Qrow had said. "It is conviction manifest. And that conviction, bends the world to do you bidding."
Jaune hadn't understood then, but now things were different.
The Nightmare system worked the same way.
It might have been born from the power of a dead god, but it was not omnipotent. It couldn't create power from nothing. It imposed a rule and enforced it relentlessly, by sealing away the Sleeper and siphoning her power constantly, bleeding her strength into humanity through conflict and consequence.
Grimm were born from her psyche, her hatred towards all life. That's what gave them the power to sense all life, and relentlessly hunt that which lives.
And every awakened individual who slew one of them could grow stronger.
They were stealing from her.
All of them.
The realization was very profound to Jaune when it had first crystallized. The system was not a benevolent entity. It was pragmatic and efficient. A cosmic mechanism built on deprivation.
He let that thought sink deeper.
Stealing.
Roman's grin flashed in his memory, the weightless anger of watching Crocea Mors and Lux Aeterna torn from his grasp, and the helplessness that followed. Roman had taken his weapons and even used his own imbued rune against him when they had fought.
Next, came his father.
The man's decisions and absence loomed larger and heavier. It wasn't simply that the man had taken away Jaune's choice in the matter of awakening, nor was it even the fact that he had disappeared. See, Jaune's father had also taken away from him what mattered most. His family. And Jaune was too weak to even contest.
Then there were the others. The nameless faces who Jaune had seen perish. The people who had screamed and vanished beneath the weight of that Rank 2 awakened, born from the consequence of a single choice. Lives stripped of their future, their purpose repurposed into nothing more than fuel for monsters.
Things stolen from where they belonged.
Jaune's mind tightened in thought.
Why should he only witness this?
Why should the world be full of thieves while he stood empty handed?
No.
The very notion of that disgusted him. His aura stirred, restless, agitated with a hunger he had been trying not to name. It was neither greed nor cruelty.
Rather, need.
An all consuming desire to take what was denied to him. To reach out and claim power instead of begging for scraps left behind.
The Weakness rune had been born from understanding fragility. From recognizing how easily strength could collapse. It allowed him to show others the truth of their own instability.
But that was only half of it.
Weakness should not exist in isolation. It needed to be fed by something else.
Strength.
Jaune's aura pulsed, resonating with the system's attention. A devouring instinct. A pull toward others, not to destroy them, but to strip away what empowered them and make it his.
Why should onlyweakening the enemy and the surroundings be his power?
Why couldn't he have both weakness and something more?
That was the missing piece.
Taking without transformation was meaningless. A true meta rune needed to rewrite relationships, not just outcomes. To change the flow of power itself.
Jaune's thoughts aligned, snapping into place with sudden clarity.
He did not want to merely rob his enemies.
He wanted to plunder them of what made them powerful.
To rip strength from them and let it fill the all consuming hollowness inside him. To turn their loss into his gain. To embody the same merciless efficiency the Nightmare system wielded against the Sleeper.
If the system could steal power to seal a god, then he could steal power to survive one.
The Nightmare system answered.
Jaune's mind flooded with sensation as an intricate rune flared flared to life in the space before his mind. Patterns unfolded and a layered meaning crystallized into form within his mindscape. The air around him seemed to thicken as pressure built.
Steal.
Devour.
Convert.
The rune burned itself into existence amidst the three aspects of his feelings.
Jaune gasped softly as an overwhelming sensation tore through him. The rune settled into his soul, heavy and alive, a concept more than a shape. He felt its rules take hold and felt his body adjust slightly to accommodate it.
The rune was meta rune, he could feel its majesty.
The simulation room seemed sharper somehow, edges more defined. He could feel his friends staring at him, but he remained still, breathing slowly as the hunger receded into a controlled, coiled presence inside him.
Ruby broke the silence first.
"…Jaune? Did you do it? Did you make a meta rune?"
He looked at her, a small, tired smile tugging at his lips.
"I did." he uttered with a breathless nod.
Pyrrha stepped closer, eyes shining with awe and curiosity in equal measure. "Well, what did you make?"
Jaune smiled a smile so pure that it seemed to blind the girl in its majesty.
"Plunder."
.
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AN: Second rune unveiled!
Advanced chapters are available on patreon