(Qrow)

His eyes narrowed as the familiar coppery scent of blood hit his nostrils. Qrow kept his guard up, sharpening his senses so nothing gets the jump on him.

He was surprised that the masked man and the shopkeeper were the same guy, but he already thought of the possibility. What really surprised him, however, is how he didn't bother to hide it. Qrow doesn't know if it's arrogance or he just wants them to know, but that's one mystery out of the way, so he's not complaining.

He tried to follow the man, but he couldn't keep up with his speed once he drank that lime-green potion, even with his crow form.

After Qrow searched for him for the past couple hours, he saw a large eruption of fire in the distance, and he immediately flew there. He knew that he arrived late when the sounds quieted down, but maybe he'll get something out of examining the place...

The first thing he noticed was the scorch marks all over the place. The grass, trees, bushes, he couldn't walk for two seconds without seeing one.

As he lifted up his blade to his shoulder, the scent of blood got stronger, and his grip over Harbinger got tighter.

It didn't take long for him to stumble on a pile of ash... and the corpse of Hazel Rainart.

His eyes widened as he saw Hazel's throat. It was not a clean death, in fact, it's as if someone brutally stabbed it for the sake of torturing him...

Qrow sighed deeply. If it was the Masked Man who did this, then he might be a lot more dangerous than he first thought. He knew that even himself wouldn't be able to beat Hazel, and that kid did it?

He glanced at the body before moving on, seeing multiple broken trees in the distance. From the scorch marks, it seems that the fight started from the clearing, or at least a distance away from it, and ended here... but why does the trail continue?

The Huntsman kept his eyes sharp as the destruction of the woods was more obvious by the second. The scorch marks were larger here, and some trees were utterly annihilated-

Qrow froze as he heard a small twig getting broken, and he twirled around, almost having a double-take at the small humanoid Grimm with one big eyeball for a head staring intently at him... while holding a severed arm.

What the hell is this doing here? He thought, charging at it. Those things belong in the badlands, not Vale...

The Grimm acted and jumped away from a tree to another, trying to get away from him. Qrow narrowed his eyes and grabbed a few throwing knives from his back pocket, throwing them at it. The Grimm, unfortunately, evaded them, running away and out of Qrow's sight.

The huntsman stopped his chase, knowing it's really not worth it. The arm was probably some poor fool's. Not really worth abandoning his investigation for it...

Unless... Salem was here. A possibility, but he has no idea why would she need a severed arm.

He sighed, focusing on the task at hand and following the trail of broken trees and scorch marks, until he reached a cliff.

"This is where the fight ends, huh..." He murmured to himself.

The one fighting was obviously the Masked Man, but against whom? Who was pushing him that far? And what happened here? Did the Masked Man lose or win?

There were so many questions, but almost no answer. the Masked Man was obviously powerful if he was able to kill Hazel, but what would the fight continue to here? Was there someone else with Hazel? Or did something interrupt the fight?

Whatever it is, it seems Salem planned on having him killed, so that crosses out his allegiance to her. Of course, this is all speculations and theories at the moment, but he knew thinking too much is better than not thinking at all.

He took out his scroll and began taking pictures of the battlefield, slowly going back to the start of it.

As he saw Hazel's corpse again, he looked at it in pity.

He would've dug a grave for him, but he doesn't have a tool to do that, and he's definitely not using his weapon. Ruby would kill him...

With a shake of his head, he changed into his crow form and flew away.

(Salem)

She was... thoroughly surprised by what she had seen, and even impressed.

After many years, a Titan was finally slain... and it only took one man, and a giant wolf.

She was interested in this individual that ruined Cinder's plan, so she kept an eye on Hazel and Tyrian through a watcher, and imagine her surprise when said individual defeated and killed them both... using magic.

Honest-to-god pure magic. Not The Maidens magic, not hers, and not one of Ozpin's gifts. His own unique mana used to shoot out powerful streams of fire that surpasses the heat of what a Maiden is capable of. Granted, his magical reserves is less than a Maiden's, but his control and pure firepower surpass theirs.

It was honestly quite shocking. A magic-user arriving in thousands of years could be a sign of something. She still doesn't have enough information to make any theories on what this means, but she was definitely interested.

And one of her powerful troops, even though she can't directly control it, fell down to his blade and magic.

It was a grueling fight for them both, with Fenrir having the upper hand slightly, but the magic-user put an incredibly good fight and even managed to win. There was something that got her thinking, though... and it was when they both fell underwater.

She couldn't see what happened, but when the masked-man came out, revealing that he was the victor, he looked very different.

He was much taller, his build was bigger, and his face looked monstrous. He had a scaly and powerful silver tail coming out of the sacral part of his spine. His hands were webbed, with three razor-sharp claws replacing his human hands.

Salem immediately deduced that he wasn't a human, and neither a Faunus. He was something different... and stronger.

There was an aura around him that he didn't have before, one that demanded respect. She knew he was much stronger than before as well.

Then, a strange thing happened.

After he reunited with his large companion, he snapped a stick of some sort, then a strange-looking sword appeared out of nowhere. She couldn't hear what he said, but she definitely heard his loud and almost insane laughter.

Once he calmed down, the sword disappeared out of his hand, then he began changing his clothes into something else.

She would've definitely stayed for the eye-candy, but there were many important things to do. She sent the watcher to leave the two and return to the battlefield, searching for a certain thing.

After a few minutes, the watcher spotted the severed arm of the mage, and Salem almost grinned when she felt magic within it. It grabbed the arm, then froze as it stared at one of Ozpin's lackeys. It, fortunately, ran away and didn't get hunted down.

It's been years since she was able to work on another's magic... and with her sentient Grimm project?

If all goes well, then The Prince will be born.

For the first time in hundreds of years, Salem felt true excitement.

(?)

...Did you see that?

...I did.

Really now? And what is it that you saw?

...He defeated th-

He defeated the Frost Legion- my Frost Legion when you said he couldn't! You owe me, you little bitch!

And said Frost Legion was heavily weakened for his sake. We both know that if he fought the real one, even a normal soldier would end him.

Excuses! He still defeated them, and even killed Krystal!

With Godslayer.

You're just salty you lost the bet.

...

In any case, since I won the bet, you know exactly what to do. You'll stay silent as I make my 2511256th galaxy-sized GWYF-inspired golf field. I don't wanna hear you utter a single complaint, got that?

...Understood.

Good.

...Now that I think about it, his birthday is coming up. What do you think I should give him?

Nothing.

That's just mean. I'm giving... hmm... how about an infinity stone?

I will kill him if you do that.

Why not?

...You cannot be serious. He's in RWBY, and you want to give a thrice-damned INFINITY STONE?!

I was joking! Geez...

I'm just gonna give him some homemade brownies or something, I dunno. It won't be some overpowered item, I promise. Just a little thing to give him a good impression, y'know?

If those "Homemade Brownies" have some Kryptonian blood in them-

There will be nothing weird in them! What the hell do you take me for?! Him curb-stomping everything won't be fu-

He's already stronger than most things there!

I groan as I cover my face.

Look, I get it, the dungeon was kinda my fault. The rewards should've been nerfed a little, but if it wasn't up to me? He would've gotten 7 Gacha Tokens. Seven. Gacha Tokens.

You know how overpowered these things can get.

...Which is why I'm changing up the list a bit. We both know Godslayer was a lucky shot. The chances for it were 0.014% for goodness' sake!

You give me some items to work with, it can be anything, from a pet rock to a super dragon ball, and I'll get the Gacha generator working.

...Very well.

Good.