Chương 144: Chapter 137: The Unwinnable War

"This... This is a joke, right?" Qrow Branwen says in disbelief, his rugged voice trembling as his hands clench the edges of the desk. He looks frantically between the eight teenagers standing in the center of the room.

"Tell me this is a joke!" Inside the sterile, imposing confines of General James Ironwood's office at Atlas Academy, the atmosphere has become entirely, paralyzingly suffocating. The cold, artificial light from the massive holographic screens illuminates the pale, horrified faces of the greatest Huntsmen and military leaders on Remnant. Oscar Pine, Team RWBY, and Team JNPR have just laid everything bare. They have recounted every single agonizing detail of Jinn's apocalyptic fable.

General Ironwood, Qrow, and Specialist Winter Schnee stand frozen in the physical office. On the left holographic screen, broadcasting from Beacon Academy, Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch sits absolutely petrified. On the right screen from Shade Academy, Headmaster Theodore and his assistant, Xanthe Rumpole, are equally paralyzed by the catastrophic revelation. Continuing Qrow's disbelief, Rumpole from Shade's screen mutters, her expression morphing into pure, unadulterated terror.

"Unbelievable! How could he do this?! How could he not share this crucial information to us?!" Glynda, her strict, professional composure entirely shattered, leans toward her screen, her green eyes wide with horror.

"Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Oscar... Are you sure those were what the Relic of Knowledge shown to you?" Oscar, Team RWBY, and Team JNPR nod in grim, absolute unison.

"It's all true, Professor Goodwitch," Pyrrha said. The teenagers confirm the devastating truth once more, explaining exactly how the Brother Gods cursed Salem with divine immortality. And how Ozpin... or rather, Ozma... was tasked by the God of Light, failing across countless millennia in every single reincarnation. The adults' eyes remain widened in sheer shock. The silence in the room is deafening, broken only by the soft hum of the holographic projectors. Especially General Ironwood.

The Atlesian commander has been dead silent from the very start of the confession. He stares blankly at the floorboards, his cybernetic eye whirring faintly. His Kingdom is currently in a state of extreme crisis. Even though Saitama had unintentionally calmed the civil unrest between Atlas and Mantle, Salem's forces are still infiltrating his borders. The hacker is still at large. And now, he and his closest allies just find out the ultimate, agonizing fact that Salem is entirely immortal.

Glynda, Ironwood, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole, the loyal Inner Circle who followed Ozpin for so long, bleeding and sacrificing for his cause, all feel a profound, soul-crushing betrayal. Winter sighs, her pristine posture slumping as she shakes her head in profound disappointment. She also feels betrayed, even though she is not an official part of Ozpin's inner circle.

She has been entrusted by the General to inherit the immense burden of the Winter Maiden, dedicating her entire life to a shadow war that she now realizes cannot be won. Ironwood's face darkens. A terrifying, lethal shadow falls over his features. He slowly lifts his head, his eyes burning with a cold, contained fury.

"Call him out. Now," Ironwood demanded.

"He must speak in front of us all." His baritone voice was a low, dangerous rumble that vibrated through the floorboards. Oscar nodded. He understood their anger all too well. He closed his eyes, his hands gripping his suspenders as he centered his focus inward. For a long, agonizing moment, there was only the hum of the ventilation system. But then, Oscar called out to the ancient wizard in a desperate, pleading tone.

"Please, Professor Ozpin! You heard them! Take responsibility!" A faint, ancient shimmer washed over Oscar's body. When he opened his eyes, the youthful, frantic panic was gone, replaced by the heavy, sorrowful gaze of the immortal headmaster. Ozpin had taken control of Oscar's body. Ozpin slowly turned, facing Ironwood, Qrow, Winter, and the holographic projections of Glynda, Theodore, and Rumpole. His expression was lined with centuries of immense, crushing guilt.

The five members of his trusted Inner Circle glared back at him, their eyes practically boring holes into his soul.

"My friends..." Ozpin began to speak, his voice soft, frail, and heavy with regret.

"I never meant to--""We trusted you," General Ironwood cut his words like a physical blade, taking a threatening step forward.

"We trusted your judgement for a long time. We fought for you. We lied to our people for you. This is how you repay us? With a lie that eclipses everything?"

"And I thank you all for that. I really do," Ozpin pleaded, raising his hands defensively, his voice cracking.

"But you must understand that everything that I did was very necessary."

"You made us send innocents to blindly fight a battle that we cannot win!" Glynda shrieked from her screen, tears of absolute fury and heartbreak spilling over her cheeks.

"Generations of Huntsmen and Huntresses! They never knew what they were truly fighting! That was necessary?!" Headmaster Theodore violently slammed his massive fist onto his desk, the sound echoing explosively through the cross-continental feed.

"Damn it, old man! All our efforts... All this time... Just for a witch, who happened to be your crazy ex-wife, that can't die no matter what we do to her!"

"Their blood was not just on your hands, Oz! It's on ours too!" Qrow roared, taking an aggressive step toward the boy's body, his crimson eyes blazing with unmatched fury.

"And all their sacrifices... all the friends I watched die... were completely futile!"

"No! You must not think that! Qrow, please!" Ozpin pleaded, stepping forward, his ancient soul desperate to make them understand.

"Their sacrifices were never futile! Every Huntsman who laid down their life, every battle fought in the dark, it bought Humanity precious time!" Ozpin looked around the room, meeting their furious glares.

"It kept the Relics out of her hands! It prevented Salem from dividing the Kingdoms and summoning the Gods to judge a fractured world! Without those sacrifices, Remnant would have been annihilated centuries ago! I gave them a purpose, a chance to ensure there was a tomorrow!"

"A tomorrow built on a foundation of lies!" Rumpole countered sharply, her voice trembling.

"You manipulated their hope, Ozpin! You manipulated our hope!"

"You promised us victory if we stood united," Glynda wept, shaking her head.

"But there is no victory against an immortal god." Ozpin sighed heavily. His shoulders collapsed, and his head lowered in absolute defeat. He didn't know how to give them hope in this shadow war anymore. On the Shade Academy screen, Theodore's eyes suddenly widened. A horrific realization dawned on the Vacuan Headmaster.

"Leonardo knew, didn't he?!" Theodore gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the screen.

"Salem must've shown him herself. He realized she couldn't be killed. That was the real reason why he defected from us!" Qrow also realized. The puzzle pieces violently clicked into place, and the Huntsman remembered his twin sister.

"Raven..." Qrow breathed out, his voice turning ice-cold.

"She found out a long time ago." Qrow stepped forward to Ozpin with a deeply angered face. He vividly remembered the tense standoff in the Haven Academy Headmaster's office, right after Saitama had punched the Vault door. He remembered Raven telling them that they were incredibly naive and that Salem was an unstoppable force of nature, right before Ozpin had explicitly cut her off.

"She warned us," Qrow snarled, getting right in Ozpin's face.

"She was about to spill the truth to us in Haven before you stopped her... You knew that she knew?!" After a long, agonizing moment, Ozpin slowly raised his head and stared back at Qrow. His expression was a tragic portrait of absolute guilt.

"I had to." General Ironwood, who had been enduring his boiling anger since the start of the confrontation, finally snapped. The Atlesian commander furiously lunged at Ozpin. With terrifying speed, Ironwood grabbed Ozpin's (or Oscar's) collar with both hands, physically lifting Oscar's small body entirely off the floorboards.

"I THOUGHT OF YOU AS A GREAT MAN! I TRUSTED YOU!" Ironwood bellowed, his face flushed with pure, volcanic rage. Everyone was shocked seeing Ironwood's physical outburst. Winter and Weiss immediately sprinted forward, desperate to intervene.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE MADE ME DO?!" Ironwood roared, spittle flying from his lips as he shook the boy's body.

"General, please!" Winter begged, grabbing Ironwood's arm, her military discipline warring with her panic. Ironwood completely ignored her, glaring directly into Ozpin's guilt-ridden eyes.

"DO YOU REALIZE HOW MY KINGDOM SUFFERS BECAUSE OF HER?! BECAUSE OF YOU?!!"

"General Ironwood, you'll hurt Oscar!" Weiss screamed, placing her hands over Ironwood's massive metal prosthetic, desperately trying to pry his fingers loose. Ironwood froze in place. His chest heaved violently as he desperately tried to control his ragged breathing. His grip on the boy's collar did not loosen. The enraged General and the guilt-ridden Headmaster stared at each other, the tension so thick it threatened to ignite the very air. Ozpin closed his eyes, feeling utterly and completely defeated.

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"I am... very sorry..." Ozpin whispered softly. Ironwood stared at Ozpin for a long, torturous moment. Winter and Weiss looked at the General with deep, fearful worry for his fracturing sanity. Ruby, Yang, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren also looked at him in extreme worry, their hands hovering near their weapons. Qrow, Glynda, Theodore, and Rumpole watched with bated breath. While they feared Ironwood's wrath, their feelings right now were directed mostly toward Ozpin.

A well of profound, unending disappointment. The trust in Ozpin's inner circle had entirely, irrevocably shattered. Ironwood closed his eyes for a moment, his jaw clenching as he forced himself to calm his racing heart. Eventually, his metal fingers uncurled. Ironwood released Ozpin. Ozpin fell to the floor, gasping slightly as his boots hit the ground. Ironwood turned his back and walked heavily to his desk, caught in a complex, agonizing storm of anger, sadness, and terror.

The rest looked at the General in a mix of pity and fear, before turning their furious glares back to Ozpin. Ozpin stood back up, straightening Oscar's collar, and continued to be silent, staring at the floorboards.

"You're lucky I'm not there," Theodore growls from the holographic feed, crossing his massive arms tight enough to strain his jacket.

"Otherwise I'll punch you in your perfect teeth!"

"Theo, you'll kill an innocent boy," Rumpole reprimanded him sharply, adjusting her glasses with trembling hands.

"Oh, right..." Theodore grumbled, glaring through the camera.

"Damn you, Oz. Hiding in a child's body so we can't even hold you accountable."

"Raven could've told us from the very beginning," Qrow stated, his voice hollow as he stepped away from the center of the room.

"But she kept it a secret too." Qrow turned around, standing with his back to everyone, staring blankly out the panoramic window at the freezing Atlesian sky. He realized something else.

"Maybe she did it because she still had hope for us. But..." Qrow sighed. His shoulders dropped heavily. He didn't know what to do or suggest anymore. The fight had been completely drained from his soul. Glynda then expressed her absolute disappointment toward Ozpin. On the screen, she wiped her tear-streaked face. She looked utterly broken.

"Back when you were the Headmaster of Beacon Academy... I was your second-in-command," Glynda whispered, her voice cracking.

"I stood by your side for years, Ozpin. I have always respected you. I admired you more than any other Huntsman on Remnant. To me, and to all the students... you were the great mentor who taught us about the inherent value of life, and the unbreakable strength of humanity." She looked directly into the camera, her green eyes filled with devastation.

"But now... I don't even know how to look at you. You aren't the man I followed." Glynda's maternal instinct completely overrode her strict exterior. She looked past Ozpin, her eyes landing on the eight teenagers.

"And to think... I sent Team RWBY and Team JNPR directly to you. I pushed children into a war they had no hope of surviving. I am so, so regretful." Team RWBY and Team JNPR were deeply moved by her confession. They looked at the strict Headmistress on the screen in absolute pity.

"Glynda..." Ozpin whispered, a solitary tear finally slipping down Oscar's cheek. He didn't know what to say to his closest confidant anymore except apologizing.

"No one wanted me..." Qrow suddenly spoke up, his raspy voice cutting through the grief.

"I was cursed..." Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Ozpin turned to look at Qrow, who was still standing with his back to everyone.

"I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world..." Qrow murmured, staring at his own reflection in the glass.

"I thought I was finally doing some good. I thought I was making a difference." Ozpin took a desperate step toward his finest scout, saying tearfully, "But you are!"

"No..." Qrow rejected the comfort instantly. He slightly turned his head, glancing over his shoulder toward Ozpin with an expression of pure, unadulterated heartbreak.

"Meeting you..." Qrow whispered, the absolute tragedy of his life fully realized, "... was the worst luck of my life." Qrow lowered his head again, closing his eyes against the pain. Ozpin also lowered his head in deep, immeasurable sadness. Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Glynda, Theodore, and Rumpole looked at Qrow in profound pity. They all understood the crushing weight of his bad luck Semblance, and how Ozpin had been the only silver lining in his cursed existence.

Ruby and Yang stepped forward, their hearts breaking for the man who had raised them beside of their father.

"Uncle..." Ruby whispered softly, her own tears slipping down her cheeks. The room was completely silent for a long moment. It was filled with a suffocating, paralyzing despair. Ozpin lifted his head, wiping the tear from his cheek. He then began to speak again.

"You can hate me all you want." Everyone turned their eyes back to him.

"You can blame me for everything, and I am not going to ask all of you to forgive me." Ozpin stated, his voice carrying the tragic weight of countless lifetimes. Team RWBY and Team JNPR frowned, crossing their arms defensively.

"All I'm asking, is for you to understand..." Ozpin pleaded, looking around the room at the broken faces of his allies.

"To see it from my point of view." Everyone listened. Despite their anger, they let him speak.

"For millennia, I have suffered beyond mortal comprehension," Ozpin confessed, his voice trembling with ancient trauma.

"I have formed various, powerful alliances in all my past lives, trying to build a unified front against her. And in every single iteration... I have been continuously backstabbed, assassinated, and betrayed the very moment they learned the truth of her immortality. Men broke under the despair. Kingdoms tore each other apart in panic." Ozpin looked directly at Ironwood, and then at Ruby.

"I did truly want to explain everything, literally everything, to you from the start. But my past alliances have always shattered. I had my reasons not to tell you. If you knew the war was unwinnable, you would have lost the very hope that gives you strength." Ozpin clenched his fists.

"But I still need to stop Salem by any means, once and for all. I can't do it alone. I need your help. I need all of you, including Team RWBY and Team JNPR. Please... do not give up."

"Then how can we win this, Ozpin?!" Rumpole demanded from the screen, throwing her hands in the air.

"The Relic explicitly said that you can't destroy her! What are you going to do with her?"

"You fought her for a long, long time," Theodore pressed, leaning close to the camera.

"You must have at least the slightest idea on how to restrain her, if not permanently kill her. Do you know how?" Ozpin fell silent for an agonizing moment. He looked down at his boots in profound, devastating shame.

"I don't know..." CRACK! The office desk was suddenly smashed by General Ironwood's cybernetic fist, the reinforced metal shattering under the impact. Everyone in the room jumped.

"YOU SEND US TO DIE IN AN UNWINNABLE WAR!" Ironwood roared, his paranoia fully, completely consuming him. Ozpin didn't know how to assure Ironwood or the rest of them. He remained completely silent, paralyzed by guilt. Qrow chuckled, a dark, utterly hopeless sound that sent shivers down the teenagers' spines.

"Great... This is just great... We're all gonna die."

"Or we could survive," Ironwood stated, his voice suddenly dropping into a cold, terrifyingly clinical register.

"How?" Theodore asked skeptically.

"By constantly running away? Like Raven?"

"I don't know about the other Kingdoms," Ironwood said, turning his back on the screens to face the room.

"But I have a plan for Atlas." Ironwood pressed a command on his console. A glowing blue hologram of the floating island of Atlas materialized in the center of the room, hovering majestically above the frozen wasteland below. As everyone observed the projection, Ironwood explained his ultimate strategy.

"I am going to have Winter claim the Maiden powers from Fria, who is still under intensive treatment in the Atlas Medical Facility, as soon as possible. And then, we will open the Atlas Vault. We will use the Relic of Creation to raise the City of Atlas high into the upper atmosphere. Completely out of Salem's reach." Everyone was absolutely shocked hearing that plan.

"You want to raise the whole island to the sky?!" Pyrrha asked, her emerald eyes wide with sheer disbelief.

"But, General, what about Mantle?!" Winter protested immediately, her military discipline breaking in the face of such callousness.

"Saitama has just stabilized the relationship between us and the city below! They are finally cooperating!"

"And transferring Fria's Maiden power to Winter so soon..." Weiss added, horrified by the ethical implications of accelerating the elderly woman's death. Ironwood sighed in immense frustration, waving his hand dismissively.

"I know it's wrong to forcefully take Fria's power before the right time," Ironwood defended his ruthless logic.

"But she is already in critical condition. She has already lived her life." Everyone stared at Ironwood in complete, unadulterated disbelief.

"And as for Mantle..." Ironwood continued, his eyes cold and unyielding.

"I was planning to move the people up to Atlas. But our current situation makes it complicated! They will question the sudden transfer, which will lead to them knowing about Salem and eventually creating chaos. Not to mention that the hacker, and possibly Cinder Fall and other Salem agents, are still in the Kingdom! We do not have the time or the operational security to evacuate them safely."

"I don't want to be that guy, Jimmy," Qrow interjected, shaking his head.

"But your plan is just... Beyond insane."

"Yeah!" Theodore agreed loudly from the Shade feed.

"How are you people even going to breathe up there? And you will eventually run out of resources!"

"You will only make your Kingdom suffer even more, James!" Glynda argued, glaring at the General.

"Besides, what makes you think Salem won't be able to reach up to you?!"

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" Ironwood erupted, his voice cracking with absolute, terrified desperation.

"What are WE supposed to do?!" Everyone was frustrated. The overwhelming hopelessness crashed back down upon them, and the room fell into suffocating silence once again.

"Looks like running is not an option either," Rumpole observed quietly.

"Even Raven was found by Salem's forces in the end." General Ironwood, Winter, Glynda, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole were all still frantically brainstorming. Their faces were a complex, agonizing mix of panic, terror, anger, and sadness. Ozpin, on the other hand, was still completely silent. He couldn't guide them any longer. His wisdom had utterly failed. But then... Team RWBY and Team JNPR looked at each other. They realized something. They remembered what they had.

They remembered that, despite the overwhelming darkness of the shadow war... They possessed an anomaly that broke every rule. Team RWBY and Team JNPR nodded to each other with newfound conviction. They turned back to the panicking adults.

"We still can fight," Ruby declared, her silver eyes burning with a sudden, unshakeable resolve. Ozpin, General Ironwood, Winter, Glynda, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole all stopped their panicked debate, turning to look at the young Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training.

"We still have a chance to win," Ruby insisted firmly.

"How?" Glynda asked, completely bewildered by their sudden confidence. Team RWBY and Team JNPR stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their faces fiercely determined. Ruby mentioned the one, impossible variable that the adults had completely forgotten in their despair.

"Saitama." Hearing that name, Ozpin, General Ironwood, Winter, Glynda, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole's eyes all widened in sudden shock.

"You're not saying..." Theodore began, leaning forward.

"It's time we tell him the truth," Ruby stated, her voice ringing with absolute clarity.

"We tell him about this secret war. We tell him about Salem. We tell him everything."

"Miss Rose, we've talked about this," General Ironwood objected immediately, stepping forward.

"Having Saitama fight Salem is too risky! If he corners her, she will unleash a global Grimm rampage!"

"Not having Saitama with us is far riskier!" Jaune argued back, stepping up beside Ruby.

"Have you all forgotten what he is capable of?"

"He effortlessly destroyed the Wyvern, the Leviathan, and even the Brother Gods' indestructible door!" Nora listed proudly.

"He bends reality by just punching it!"

"If there is anyone who can face Salem's immortality, it's him!" Ren agreed, his stoic confidence fully restored.

"But what if Salem's immortality is stronger than any magic?" Rumpole asked nervously, adjusting her glasses.

"What if his punch still does not permanently kill Salem?"

"Also, we have continuously lied to him all this time!" Glynda added, her maternal anxiety flaring.

"We always said to him that there is no 'Demon Lord' or 'Final Boss' in this world!"

"Imagine how he will react if we tell him..." Qrow muttered, wincing at the thought of the god-like being throwing a tantrum over being manipulated.

"He saved Vale! He saved Mistral! And he has brought peace between Atlas and Mantle!" Yang stepped forward, her lilac eyes fierce.

"He protected our lives multiple times without asking anything in return!"

"Uh... I don't know, Yang," Blake murmured hesitantly, scratching her cheek.

"We often bribed him to help us with supermarket coupons." Yang paused, looking highly awkward for a moment as she remembered the premium beef and VIP passes.

"Oh, yeah, right... But the point is, he is our friend! So whatever his reaction will be, it's on us! We deserve his anger anyway, right?"

"I agree," Weiss nodded gracefully.

"Also, we know Saitama much better than you do. We know exactly what kind of man he is." Pyrrha nodded to everyone, offering a warm, absolute smile of trust.

"He is a hero." The room fell into a profound, contemplative silence. Ozpin, General Ironwood, Winter, Glynda, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole all internally evaluated everything they had done with Saitama. All the ridiculous grocery threats. All the complex geopolitical lies. Despite all of his baffling antics, his mundane complaints, and his absolute disregard for the rules of Remnant, the hero never antagonized them. He never abused his absolute power. Saitama was a genuinely good person.

"They're right." Ozpin finally spoke, his voice breaking the silence. Hearing Ozpin speak with newfound conviction, everyone turned to him. Ozpin's (or Oscar's) face was now fiercely determined, the ancient wizard's spirit burning brightly once again, rekindled by the unwavering hope of his students.

"We don't have any other choice," Ozpin admitted, accepting the reality of their impossible situation. Team RWBY and Team JNPR exhaled in massive relief that Ozpin agreed with them, even though their anger toward his past lies still simmered beneath the surface.

"Saitama..." Ozpin declared softly, "... is our only hope." General Ironwood, Winter, Glynda, Qrow, Theodore, and Rumpole looked toward each other across the physical and holographic space. They shared a long, heavy look. They silently agreed. There was absolutely no other way but to reveal the ultimate truth to the invincible hero from another world. Then, suddenly... The blaring, high-pitched shriek of the emergency alarm inside Ironwood's office went off, flashing the room in harsh, rhythmic crimson light.

Everyone was violently shocked. Because Glynda, Theodore, and Rumpole were not physically there, they were completely confused, looking around frantically from their own screens.

"James? What's going on!" Glynda demanded, panic lacing her voice.

"We're being attacked!" Ironwood shouted, sprinting back to his console and slamming his hand onto the communications relay. Ironwood got an urgent, static-filled call through his earpiece. He pressed his finger to his ear.

"Clover?" Ironwood asked. Clover Ebi's voice reported frantically to the General over the radio, the chaotic sounds of heavy gunfire and roaring monsters echoing terrifyingly in the background.

"Sir! There's a massive Grimm swarm!" Clover yelled over the comms.

"They managed to break through our defensive walls! They're heading directly to the city!"

"WHAT?!" Ironwood roared, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief.

"They are..." Clover shouted, his voice cracking with pure, unadulterated terror as he processed the impossible biology of the encroaching nightmare.

"Beringels! With wings?!"