The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Area of Effect

Power glowed through my arm, gathered and shaped by my will. The Dust crystals that floated around me quivered and shifted, rotating like bullets in a revolver as I began to fire. I didn't waste my ammo on a single blast or an overwhelming display of power, but instead unleashed a prolonged burst of a dozen varied effects, aiming for something else. To anyone else, it might have looked like I was firing at random, shooting whatever gun happened to be at hand, but needless to say, that wasn't the case; I calculated the trajectory of each shot and decided which crystal to use when and how on a moment's notice. And if Gilgamesh moved to dodge most of them, leaving them to hit the ground or burst in empty air…

Well. That was okay, too—every hit could help, but I was aware that he'd likely shrug off the worst of the effects of any particular shot; it might have been better that he didn't get in my way.

The first shot struck the ground and discolored it, leaving a strange patch that began to slowly grow like moss. Another stopped in midair before bloating into a bubble that warped light oddly as it passed through it. Another bit of land was abruptly transmuted into liquid glass, nearly catching Gilgamesh as he moved through the air, while a different shot caused a carpet of unnatural flames to unfurl across the barren ground, flickering to brightly and fanning too hot. I directed another blast straight at Gilgamesh, allowing it to unfold into a well of consuming gravity even as I swept something like a spotlight across the area, causing the ground to simply unfold into dust even as the Grimm's armor began to steam slightly. I flipped to the next round, causing a sudden pillar of ice to emerge and unfold, razor sharp icicles exploding from between the petals, and then knelt, striking the earth.

At once, the ground rippled—not because of a Shockwave, but simply because it had been turned abruptly fluid. I steadied myself in the space just above it as a matter of course, reaching back up to fire more blasts into the sky. One exploded outwards into the shape of a luminous disk, so hit that even far below it, things began to burn. Another shot reached slightly higher before bursting in a similar fashion, halting the disk before it could unfold any further and then coming down in a wide cylinder that caught me, Gilgamesh, and all the other shots I'd cast into the air, still waiting to explode.

With that, Gilgamesh stopped, eyeless face focusing on me as he realized I wasn't really trying to hit him. If the cylinder of slowed time was affecting him at all, he hid it well and I followed suit, willing my Dimensional to shield me from its effects.

"You…" He said, something humming at his throat as he projected the sounds. "What are you planning now?"

I smirked at him and snapped my fingers.

By raising Sanctum to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Sanctuary.'

By raising Temple to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Cathedral.'

By raising Safe Haven to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Asylum.'

By raising Sanctum Sanctorum to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Tabernacle.'

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Sanctum,' 'Temple,' 'Safe Haven,' and 'Naraka' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Et in Arcadia Ego' has been created.

And at once, the power I'd been gathering burst forth. This was the power I'd been holding back as I fought Gilgamesh head on, limiting myself primarily to physical displays as I funneled all the power I could towards my other self's work. It was a complicated thing, not only because of the energy required but also because of the setup it necessitated, and so this was something I'd been working on for a while now. Part of it was the gun-arm I'd created for this purpose, allowing me to quickly unleash a variety of powerful effects on the surrounds at relatively little cost to myself.

It was, in a sense, the result of all my work with Dust in the past. I'd taken a page out of Conquest's book, creating openings and pathways for Dust throughout my own body, but there was more to it than that; there were the patterns I created beneath my skin—the 'circuitry' I'd learned through practicing Dust Weaving with Cinder—and even quick touches of Dust Eater to allow me to quickly process more complex Dust. The result was an extremely expensive but staggeringly versatile weapon, if one that required extensive manipulation of one's own body and a great deal of multitasking to actually use.

Getting to the point where I was capable of using something like this with ease hadn't been easy; improving my Dust related skills had been almost painful, not so much because the skills didn't improve quickly as because they were costly to improve. Every use required the expenditure of Dust, often in fairly large quantities, and while I could spend MP and money freely, the crystals were another matter. To me, each one was a valuable resource; a way to heal myself and regain power, to give myself an edge in a pinch, and more. They were effectively my only real consumables, taking the role of my potions, ethers, and such. That I had to expend thousands upon thousands of them to get what I wanted was painful to me as a gamer, especially since I usually only used Dust on myself to begin with. The different Dust skills had had potential, but I'd put them off for a long time, considering it a waste of resources until several skills changed my mind. Then…well, I'd spent the last week grinding various things.

But the biggest issue had been improving my barrier skills, and it had been for reasons that went beyond being a Dust miser. With the exceptions of the skills I could only use once a day, they were by far my slowest skills to improve, simply because they weren't personal. Most of my skills I either created and launched or applied to myself, meaning they benefited greatly from skills like Acceleration, which I'd been using to bolster my growth since the moment I could afford it. My barriers, however, covered a range far larger than my person and were static things once created, gaining experience over time; as a result, they didn't benefit from my field of Accelerated time. Recently, I'd gained a number of other skills to help with their growth, but they'd still been left behind by the head start I'd given my other skills, especially given that they leveled slowly to begin with. Even now, Naraka was far from maxing out.

Beyond that, however, I suspected there were some issues of compatibility. I'd long had my suspicions about the two Sephirot skills I was missing—Keter and Malkuth. Why I was missing them, I still wasn't sure, but from what I'd learned I had something of a guess as to their effects. Keter, I figured, was probably focused on improving skills that affected and defined the self, things like…well, like most of my skills. The Gamer's Body and Mind, the skills I'd gained from my stats, most of the things I layered over myself, and so on. If the Sephirot skills indicated a heightened presence of their corresponding element in the user's soul, I figured that the skills I was best with or valued the most probably fell under Keter. There was likely more to it than that, but it seemed likely.

But if I fought using myself, Malkuth fought using the world. It made sense, then, that the hypothetical skill 'Malkuth' would govern and improve skills that affected an area, such as barriers and such. That was how Malkuth himself worked, after all; he fought by changing the way the world worked, altering the rules to his own advantage.

I didn't have either Keter or Malkuth, but I suspected that I benefited from the former regardless. The latter, however…that had been a different story. I'd worked hard to improve my barrier skills, simply because they were useful as all hell, but it had been like pushing a stone up a steep hill—a hypothetical, really heavy stone that resisted my usual bullshit. Even after several months of training, a boatload of experience boosters, and, most recently, the effects of Sahasrara, the skills I'd gotten back in my first trip to Mistral only just barely maxed out.

But barely making it steal meant they'd made it and I had the tricks to show for it. And if the skills of Malkuth were the ones I had the most trouble with, well, I dedicated this tactic to my relentless asshole of a spiritual brother. Fuck you in your godforsaken abomination of a face, Malkuth; this one's for you.

The world around us changed.

It began with a shimmer in the air, a ripple of something that passed through both the ground and the air. The strange wave spilt past Gilgamesh in an instant, washing over him and everything around us in an instant before seeming to crash into some kind of invisible wall and splashing both up into the sky and down into the earth. After a moment, the world beyond that invisible boundary became indistinct, as if some kind of fog had rolled over everything but us.

Gilgamesh, quick to react as ever, all but leapt away from me as realization struck and made it over the boundary line just as the effect came hold, just an instant too late for it to matter. He passed into the fog with a ripple of space and reappeared behind me, flying through the opposite edge of the wall. As he landed, he looked somehow stunned, gaze flickering from one side to the next as he understood what had just happened—and what it meant.

He was already trapped, the first of my barriers cutting off all routes of escape.

Sanctuary (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 1000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill grants it's user the power to separate a volume of space entirely from the outside world, rendering both entry and exit impossible through purely physical means. The volume of the barrier increases with skill level and INT; greater spacial warping is possible at higher levels.

Additional 1000000 MP used per minute.

This was my Sanctuary, the necessary first step of my plan and the natural growth of Sanctum. It was not a skill meant to protect an area from outside attack—instead, it cut an area off from attack entirely in a way that fell just below dimensional barriers like Naraka, prohibiting both entry and exit in the most literal way possible; simply put, you literally couldn't enter or leave. The entire barrier indicated a region of twisted space and anyone who passed through it would find themselves moved along it; those outside would pass through the entire volume in a single step without so much as laying foot on what was inside, while those within would experience a wraparound effect like those in many of the games I'd played. Unlike its predecessor and like Naraka, breaking it wasn't a matter of physical power, because it wasn't something that could by touched or grasped. It was, for all intents and purposes, just empty space.

And for that reason, Gilgamesh couldn't leave, at least not without breaking the barrier itself—and needless to say, I had no intention of allowing that. He couldn't run away or escape what was to come and I had every intention of pressing my advantage.

The moment I was sure Gilgamesh wouldn't be alerted to my intentions and escape, I continued with the next step of my preparations. There was a shudder in the earth, followed by a rippling wave of iridescent light that flashed out towards the edge of my Sanctuary and continued on through the other side, creating a beautiful array of shimmering patterns as the wave hit itself and broke apart. After a moment, the ground of my Sanctuary was covered in seemingly random waves of light, which abruptly stopped and seemed to sink into the ground, leaving behind dim remnants of their color on the soil before that faded as well. While the display was certainly eye-catching, the truth of the skill was somewhat harder to grasp, unless you had eyes good enough to see the truth—namely, how the energy within the area had been affected.

Cathedral (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:2500000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill allowed the user to cast a benediction over a volume of space, calling out to the very world to aid him in his time of need. While this ability is active, the user can supplement his own strength with the help of nature itself, bolstering himself far beyond his normal limits.

Increase HP regeneration by 500% within area.

Increase MP regeneration by 500% within area.

Increase Stamina regeneration by 500% within area.

Halve the cost of all MP skills used within this area.

Alternatively, double the power of any MP skill activated at its full price.

Additional 2500000 MP used per minute.

The raw power I felt while meditating, almost unbelievable in its sheer immensity, now twisted around me. There was power in the world that could stagger belief if you were shown it without warning—power that could even make me feel humble. It could be hard to remember, but Remnant, for all that it was a tiny speck of dust compared to the vastness of the universe, was still enormous; a giant whirlwind of power that we desperately clung to as it hurtled through space. Even the Brahmastra was nothing if viewed on that level, for all that it could wipe out cities; the energy that went into rotating Remnant for even just a minute dwarfed that unspeakably. Cities? That kind of power could strip the life from this world and it spent a thousand times that every day. Even on a lesser scale, the slight shifting of tectonic plates could make the world tremble and the power of a storm could lap the energy consumption of all of Remnant with ease.

We were small and the world was large. That's why it was an amazing place to live in, despite the dangers it was filled with. The nature of my skill Humilitas was all about understanding the simple scope of the world and tapping into it—and Cathedral worked much the same way. It shaped the tides of energy, if only in a tiny, tiny area, and drew them to the user's aid. The moment the rippling patterns settled, I could fell the power flowing into me, bolstering my strength and filling my reserves even as they drew from them. Even with the obscene amounts of power my barriers were already beginning to draw from me, Cathedral gave me the strength I needed to continue on.

"You…" Gilgamesh whispered and promptly outpaced the sound of his own voice, closing in on me with absurd speed. "I hope you don't think I'll just sit back and let you do whatever you want!"

At once, I raised an arm, catching his attack as I had before—but this time, instead of feeling my bones shatter, I withstood the blow with nothing but the feeling of heavy bruises and torn flesh, keeping Gilgamesh's claws away from my face. Just as quickly, I lashed out at him driving a hand into his gut with force enough to make him stagger two steps back before recovering and lashing out at me with an onslaught of blows.

"Allow me?" I asked, smiling as I refused to show any of the strain I felt as I dodged and parried. "Idiot—I hope you don't think I'm giving you any choice in the matter!"

Gilgamesh didn't reply, but his assault grew in intensity, half a hundred blows flashing towards me in a moment. I stared into the storm of oncoming strikes, Mathematician's Answer breaking them down to angles and equations as I stepped closer, seeking to avoid damage as my other finished his work. I pushed aside a strike with my forearm, flicked my head to the side to let the next sail past, and shifted to take the next in a less vulnerable place. The next I cut off with Psychokinesis before Fluctuating out of range and then immediately back into its midst, striking at him during the brief pause in its flow before hopping back and clenching my hands into fists. With the help of Metamorphosis and Qigong, I felt power flood my muscles, and I met the remaining strikes head-on, blocking fist with fist.

Abruptly, something shattered and Gilgamesh flickered out of range, though not before I saw the cracks forming in his armor with every strike. He looked down at himself, seeming startled again—but he shouldn't have been. I wouldn't have trapped us in the ring just to boost myself.

No; I intended to undercut him as well.

Asylum (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 1000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill was named for its contradictory nature—it grants the user the power to create a place of both safety and madness. Should anything capable of imposing an external negative status effect be present within the area of Asylum upon activation, it immediately afflicts all valid targets even if they are not directly exposed to the effect. So long as Asylum remains active, no status effects activated after it may be imposed on those within its range.

Additional 1000000 MP used per hour.

The moment my other activated the skill, both Gilgamesh and I were struck by the myriad effects I'd left suspended within the area. We froze, burnt, twisted, cracked, solidified, bent, were crush, were melted, evaporated, twisted, flickered and stuttered through time, and more. It was an onslaught of status effects such that I saw a cascade of windows popup out of the corner of my eye—bad enough that, taken all together, even Gilgamesh couldn't shrug it off.

But, being the one responsible, I'd naturally come prepared to deal with it. What my natural resistances and Inerrant couldn't deal with, I quickly healed myself of and pressed towards Gilgamesh, forcing myself not to slow down. As I did, I felt the barriers twist and writhe, binding themselves to me quickly as I went—something meaningless at this point, but important to prepare ahead of time.

Tabernacle (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 3000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill was born in an attempt to resolve the flaws inherent in other skills. Most barrier skills are firmly fixed in space and are immobile, covering a defined volume. This skill, however, allows barriers to function with a more advanced understanding of space, using higher dimensional relationships to bind them to points in space-time that seem mobile.

While Tabernacle is active, the user my center barriers on himself instead of attaching them to specific areas.

And with that, all my preparations were made and I was ready. I felt my other self gather his strength again, meditating while I retained control of our bodies, and knew he was just about ready, too.

"Are you feeling nervous?" I asked Gilgamesh when he didn't approach, most likely trying to develop countermeasures. He eyed me cautiously as I spoke and didn't answer. "Well, it's understandable. But…it's too early to feel that way. We're just getting started."

Lifting a hand, I swung backwards, as if to strike a wall—and cracks filled the air as the world began to break.

It began with a shimmer in the air, a ripple of something that passed through both the ground and the air. The strange wave spilt past Gilgamesh in an instant, washing over him and everything around us in an instant before seeming to crash into some kind of invisible wall and splashing both up into the sky and down into the earth. After a moment, the world beyond that invisible boundary became indistinct, as if some kind of fog had rolled over everything but us.

Gilgamesh, quick to react as ever, all but leapt away from me as realization struck and made it over the boundary line just as the effect came hold, just an instant too late for it to matter. He passed into the fog with a ripple of space and reappeared behind me, flying through the opposite edge of the wall. As he landed, he looked somehow stunned, gaze flickering from one side to the next as he understood what had just happened—and what it meant.

He was already trapped, the first of my barriers cutting off all routes of escape.

Sanctuary (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 1000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill grants it's user the power to separate a volume of space entirely from the outside world, rendering both entry and exit impossible through purely physical means. The volume of the barrier increases with skill level and INT; greater spacial warping is possible at higher levels.

Additional 1000000 MP used per minute.

This was my Sanctuary, the necessary first step of my plan and the natural growth of Sanctum. It was not a skill meant to protect an area from outside attack—instead, it cut an area off from attack entirely in a way that fell just below dimensional barriers like Naraka, prohibiting both entry and exit in the most literal way possible; simply put, you literally couldn't enter or leave. The entire barrier indicated a region of twisted space and anyone who passed through it would find themselves moved along it; those outside would pass through the entire volume in a single step without so much as laying foot on what was inside, while those within would experience a wraparound effect like those in many of the games I'd played. Unlike its predecessor and like Naraka, breaking it wasn't a matter of physical power, because it wasn't something that could by touched or grasped. It was, for all intents and purposes, just empty space.

And for that reason, Gilgamesh couldn't leave, at least not without breaking the barrier itself—and needless to say, I had no intention of allowing that. He couldn't run away or escape what was to come and I had every intention of pressing my advantage.

The moment I was sure Gilgamesh wouldn't be alerted to my intentions and escape, I continued with the next step of my preparations. There was a shudder in the earth, followed by a rippling wave of iridescent light that flashed out towards the edge of my Sanctuary and continued on through the other side, creating a beautiful array of shimmering patterns as the wave hit itself and broke apart. After a moment, the ground of my Sanctuary was covered in seemingly random waves of light, which abruptly stopped and seemed to sink into the ground, leaving behind dim remnants of their color on the soil before that faded as well. While the display was certainly eye-catching, the truth of the skill was somewhat harder to grasp, unless you had eyes good enough to see the truth—namely, how the energy within the area had been affected.

Cathedral (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:2500000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill allowed the user to cast a benediction over a volume of space, calling out to the very world to aid him in his time of need. While this ability is active, the user can supplement his own strength with the help of nature itself, bolstering himself far beyond his normal limits.

Increase HP regeneration by 500% within area.

Increase MP regeneration by 500% within area.

Increase Stamina regeneration by 500% within area.

Halve the cost of all MP skills used within this area.

Alternatively, double the power of any MP skill activated at its full price.

Additional 2500000 MP used per minute.

The raw power I felt while meditating, almost unbelievable in its sheer immensity, now twisted around me. There was power in the world that could stagger belief if you were shown it without warning—power that could even make me feel humble. It could be hard to remember, but Remnant, for all that it was a tiny speck of dust compared to the vastness of the universe, was still enormous; a giant whirlwind of power that we desperately clung to as it hurtled through space. Even the Brahmastra was nothing if viewed on that level, for all that it could wipe out cities; the energy that went into rotating Remnant for even just a minute dwarfed that unspeakably. Cities? That kind of power could strip the life from this world and it spent a thousand times that every day. Even on a lesser scale, the slight shifting of tectonic plates could make the world tremble and the power of a storm could lap the energy consumption of all of Remnant with ease.

We were small and the world was large. That's why it was an amazing place to live in, despite the dangers it was filled with. The nature of my skill Humilitas was all about understanding the simple scope of the world and tapping into it—and Cathedral worked much the same way. It shaped the tides of energy, if only in a tiny, tiny area, and drew them to the user's aid. The moment the rippling patterns settled, I could fell the power flowing into me, bolstering my strength and filling my reserves even as they drew from them. Even with the obscene amounts of power my barriers were already beginning to draw from me, Cathedral gave me the strength I needed to continue on.

"You…" Gilgamesh whispered and promptly outpaced the sound of his own voice, closing in on me with absurd speed. "I hope you don't think I'll just sit back and let you do whatever you want!"

At once, I raised an arm, catching his attack as I had before—but this time, instead of feeling my bones shatter, I withstood the blow with nothing but the feeling of heavy bruises and torn flesh, keeping Gilgamesh's claws away from my face. Just as quickly, I lashed out at him driving a hand into his gut with force enough to make him stagger two steps back before recovering and lashing out at me with an onslaught of blows.

"Allow me?" I asked, smiling as I refused to show any of the strain I felt as I dodged and parried. "Idiot—I hope you don't think I'm giving you any choice in the matter!"

Gilgamesh didn't reply, but his assault grew in intensity, half a hundred blows flashing towards me in a moment. I stared into the storm of oncoming strikes, Mathematician's Answer breaking them down to angles and equations as I stepped closer, seeking to avoid damage as my other finished his work. I pushed aside a strike with my forearm, flicked my head to the side to let the next sail past, and shifted to take the next in a less vulnerable place. The next I cut off with Psychokinesis before Fluctuating out of range and then immediately back into its midst, striking at him during the brief pause in its flow before hopping back and clenching my hands into fists. With the help of Metamorphosis and Qigong, I felt power flood my muscles, and I met the remaining strikes head-on, blocking fist with fist.

Abruptly, something shattered and Gilgamesh flickered out of range, though not before I saw the cracks forming in his armor with every strike. He looked down at himself, seeming startled again—but he shouldn't have been. I wouldn't have trapped us in the ring just to boost myself.

No; I intended to undercut him as well.

Asylum (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 1000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill was named for its contradictory nature—it grants the user the power to create a place of both safety and madness. Should anything capable of imposing an external negative status effect be present within the area of Asylum upon activation, it immediately afflicts all valid targets even if they are not directly exposed to the effect. So long as Asylum remains active, no status effects activated after it may be imposed on those within its range.

Additional 1000000 MP used per hour.

The moment my other activated the skill, both Gilgamesh and I were struck by the myriad effects I'd left suspended within the area. We froze, burnt, twisted, cracked, solidified, bent, were crush, were melted, evaporated, twisted, flickered and stuttered through time, and more. It was an onslaught of status effects such that I saw a cascade of windows popup out of the corner of my eye—bad enough that, taken all together, even Gilgamesh couldn't shrug it off.

But, being the one responsible, I'd naturally come prepared to deal with it. What my natural resistances and Inerrant couldn't deal with, I quickly healed myself of and pressed towards Gilgamesh, forcing myself not to slow down. As I did, I felt the barriers twist and writhe, binding themselves to me quickly as I went—something meaningless at this point, but important to prepare ahead of time.

Tabernacle (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 3000000

An ancient techniques forged by Man to shield themselves from the darkness that sought to return them to the void, this skill was born in an attempt to resolve the flaws inherent in other skills. Most barrier skills are firmly fixed in space and are immobile, covering a defined volume. This skill, however, allows barriers to function with a more advanced understanding of space, using higher dimensional relationships to bind them to points in space-time that seem mobile.

While Tabernacle is active, the user my center barriers on himself instead of attaching them to specific areas.

And with that, all my preparations were made and I was ready. I felt my other self gather his strength again, meditating while I retained control of our bodies, and knew he was just about ready, too.

"Are you feeling nervous?" I asked Gilgamesh when he didn't approach, most likely trying to develop countermeasures. He eyed me cautiously as I spoke and didn't answer. "Well, it's understandable. But…it's too early to feel that way. We're just getting started."

Lifting a hand, I swung backwards, as if to strike a wall—and cracks filled the air as the world began to break.