Chương 75: Chapter 68: The Horde of Anima

Deep within the cold, crystalline halls of Evernight Castle, the Queen of the Grimm stood perfectly still in the suffocating dark. Salem's crimson eyes were fixated on the floating Seer Grimm in the center of her chamber. That creature hovered silently, its gelatinous body glowing with an eerie, pulsing light that projected the chaos unfolding thousands of miles away at Haven Academy. Through it, Salem watched the entire Battle of Haven. She had watched Qrow Branwen and the boy, Oscar Pine, enter the Grand Hall.

She had watched Raven and the inner circle spring their carefully laid trap, only to be reverse-ambushed by the sudden, coordinated arrival of the students. She observed every clash of steel, every flare of Dust, and every desperate maneuver. But what drew her gaze the most was the blonde knight. Through the Seer's projection, Salem watched Jaune Arc step in front of the Fall Maiden. She watched him block Cinder's superheated strikes, not with a weapon, but with his bare hands and sheer, impossible physical force.

The sight forced a memory to the forefront of her mind, a vision from just a month prior, when she had watched that same boy completely annihilate hordes of her monsters in the Forever Fall Forest. The students were getting stronger. Much stronger. Their growth defied all natural logic of Huntsman training, and Salem knew exactly who was responsible. It was the anomaly. It was the presence of the bald man who had resided in Beacon Academy.

"This world..." Salem spoke aloud, her voice a chilling, venomous whisper that echoed through the empty throne room.

"It clings to a false idol. They build their fragile hope on a singular anomaly, believing he can save them from the inevitable." Even as Cinder, Raven, and the decoy Vernal managed to slip away into the vault, an unsettling, cold sensation twisted in Salem's chest. The heroes in the Grand Hall were winning. And then, the situation deteriorated further. The Seer captured the arrival of Blake Belladonna, backed by a massive, unified army of Menagerie Faunus and the Mistral Police Force.

They were systematically dismantling the White Fang. Humans and Faunus, standing together, fighting side-by-side to protect a Huntsman Academy. Salem's uneasiness rapidly curdled into genuine desperation. The thought of Saitama's continued existence in Remnant was the root of her fear. She, along with the rest of her faction, still believed the so-called "Hero of Vale" was trapped within the borders of Sanus. But his influence was clearly spreading.

If his presence inspired the people of Remnant, if he somehow managed to unite humanity and Faunus against her... her grand design would crumble. If the people of Remnant stood united when the Relics were brought together, the Brother Gods would not wipe the slate clean. They would judge humanity worthy and spare the world. If that happened, Salem would be denied the absolute, final end to her eternal curse. She would never achieve her ultimate rest. She could not let that happen.

She needed to break their unity right now, before the spark of hope became an inferno. Raising her pale hands, Salem tapped into the deep, dark magic that flowed through her veins. She reached out across the oceans, her will echoing across the continent of Anima like a silent, suffocating shockwave. She commanded the Creatures of Grimm in the surrounding mountains, the forests, and the deep valleys. Across Anima, the sky darkened as massive flocks of Nevermores and Griffons responded to their master's call.

Those winged creatures descended upon the forests, but not to hunt. They swept low, their massive talons grabbing hold of the land-bound monsters. Beowolves, Ursai, and towering Beringels. Carrying the ground troops into the sky, the avian Grimm took flight, ascending the treacherous cliffs to bypass Mistral's defenses entirely and bring an apocalyptic swarm directly to the steps of Haven Academy.

Far above the lower valleys, Adam Taurus was running. He tore through the dense woods bordering the upper terraces of Mistral, his breathing ragged, his boots violently snapping fallen branches in the dark. As he ran, his hand shot up to his face, his fingers curling around the edges of his bone-white White Fang mask. With a guttural snarl, he ripped it off his face and hurled it into the dirt. It was useless now. A broken symbol of a failed revolution.

Without the mask, the chilling reality of his past was bared to the night air. Over his blinded left eye, burned deeply and permanently into his scarred flesh, was the jagged, cruel acronym of the SDC. Schnee Dust Company. It was a horrific brand, a brand meant for cattle and cargo, violently stamped onto a living Faunus. How dare she? Adam thought, his mind a violently spinning vortex of rage. She brings the very people I fought to liberate, twisting them into her own personal army to defend human institutions!

He then thought of the faces of the group of Menagerie Faunus. Traitors, every single one of them. They betrayed their own kind for the illusion of peace! He slashed wildly at a low-hanging branch with Wilt, completely severing it. And the White Fang... cowards! Incompetent, weak-minded cowards, breaking at the first sign of resistance! I gave them purpose! I gave them strength! And they threw their weapons down for her! His chest heaved, the humiliating image of Blake standing over him burning in his mind's eye.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. He hated the humans who always seemed to win, who sat in their high towers and watched his people bleed. But above all else, his hatred for Blake was a consuming fire. I will make her bleed. Adam vowed, his exposed eye twitching with manic intensity. I will tear everything she loves apart! I will make her watch as I burn her precious friends to ash!!!

Just past the tree line, the quiet, pristine cobblestone streets of Upper Mistral stretched out under the fractured moon.

"Oh, come on." Saitama complained lazily, dragging his red boots against the cobblestone as they walked down the center of the street.

"My feet are killing me. It's already night. Can't we just find a lodging and go to sleep? I'm pretty sure I saw a place with a 'vacancy' sign three blocks back." Beside him, Neopolitan didn't even look up. She aggressively tapped on her scroll and shoved the glowing screen directly into Saitama's face. Saitama squinted at the text. [Revenge first, sleep later.] Saitama let out a long, exaggerated sigh, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"You are such a stubborn brat, you know that?" Neo just smirked, twirling her parasol over her shoulder, entirely unapologetic. At that exact moment, the bushes at the edge of the street rustled violently. Adam Taurus burst out from the tree line, his chest heaving, his face exposed and wild with fury. Neo and Saitama stopped walking, turning to look at the Faunus who had just emerged from the woods. Adam paused to catch his breath, scanning the area to get his bearings. And that was when he saw them.

"You..." Adam spoke up, his hand resting instinctively on the hilt of his sword. Saitama raised his eyebrows, analyzing the man's appearance, while Neo's eyes widened slightly in surprise. She remembered this extremist. He had worked with Roman and Cinder back in Vale.

"Aren't you Torchwick's mute companion?" Adam demanded, taking a slow step forward onto the cobblestone.

"Where is he?" His eye drifted up, noticing the signature bowler hat resting atop Neo's head. Adam scoffed, a cold, cynical smile crossing his face.

"Dead, then. Fitting for a human thief." Adam then shifted his gaze to the man standing next to her. The stranger was wearing an incredibly garish yellow jumpsuit, red boots, red gloves, and a white cape. Atop his head sat a clearly cheap, messy brown wig that looked like it had been glued on sideways. Saitama leaned over, talking to Neo.

"Hey, who's the guy with the cow horns? And what's with the letters stamped over his eye? Is that a tattoo, or did he fall asleep on a hot grill?" Adam's scarred eye twitched violently at the sheer, casual disrespect, but he gritted his teeth and completely ignored the bald man's question. Neo quickly typed on her scroll and held it up for Saitama. Saitama read it. [Acquaintance. White Fang.] Saitama blinked his drawn-on eyes, scratching his chin through the wig.

"What's a White Fang? A dental clinic?" Neo let out a silent, exasperated sigh. She deleted the text, typed a single word, and showed it to him again. [Terrorist.] After reading it, Saitama stared back at Adam for a second. His expression completely blank.

"Oh," He said simply. Adam, on the other hand, couldn't afford to get dragged into an argument. He was a fugitive, and he could not leave a trail.

"I can't let there be any eyewitnesses about where I am," Adam declared, his Aura flaring a violent red as his gaze locked entirely onto Neo.

"Especially a human and a traitorous associate!" Adam dropped into his stance. In a blinding, supersonic flash of crimson light, he drew Wilt and lunged forward, executing a flawless, lethal horizontal strike aimed directly at the weird man's neck. Sensing the killing intent, Neo casually backflipped a safe distance away, opening her parasol and watching the scene unfold with mild amusement. Adam's blade connected perfectly.

The extremist followed through, turning his back on his target and slowly sheathing his sword, fully expecting the man's head to slide off his shoulders.

"Hey! What's your problem?!" Adam froze. His single eye widened in absolute shock. He spun around. Saitama was still standing there, completely unharmed, with a deeply annoyed expression on his flat face. But the attack had done something. Slice. The cheap brown wig atop Saitama's head suddenly split perfectly down the middle, the two halves sliding off his scalp and plopping pathetically onto the cobblestone street. Saitama gasped, his hands flying up to his smooth, shiny, bald head.

"Ah!! My disguise!" Saitama panicked comically, his jaw dropping in sheer terror.

"What if that tavern owner from near Shion village is in this city?! If he recognizes me, he's gonna make me pay double for that meal I ran out on! You're going to take responsibility for this, cow-guy!" Adam wasn't listening. His eyes widened in shock. His gaze was locked onto the gleaming bald head reflecting the moonlight. The memories slammed into Adam like a runaway freight train. The Battle of Beacon. The massive, unstoppable Wyvern plummeting from the sky. The way that creature was obliterated effortlessly.

The invincible, bald anomaly who had single-handedly destroyed everything Cinder had planned.

"You..." Adam whispered, his entire body trembling. Not with fear, but with an explosive, world-shattering rage.

"YOU!" Adam's grip on his scabbard groaned under the pressure.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO RUINED EVERYTHING IN VALE!"

"Huh?" Saitama tilted his head, his panic subsiding into confusion.

"Do I know you?" Adam shrieked.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Adam vanished, moving faster than the eye could track. He unleashed a furious, relentless tempest of strikes. He slashed at Saitama's chest, his neck, his face. Sparks showered the cobblestone street as the red blade of Wilt struck the bald hero hundreds of times in a matter of seconds. Saitama didn't even flinch. He just stood there, looking vaguely annoyed by the sudden loud noises. Desperate, Adam channeled his Semblance.

The world around him darkened as he poured every ounce of his Aura into a single, devastating Moonslice. With a feral roar, he brought the glowing red blade down directly onto the top of Saitama's bare head. CLANG! The sound echoed like a massive church bell. The sheer kinetic backlash traveled up Adam's arms, nearly dislocating his shoulders. Adam staggered backward, panting heavily, his chest heaving.

He stared through the dust, praying to the gods that his ultimate attack had at least drawn a single drop of blood. The dust cleared. Saitama was still standing there. But Adam noticed something horrifying. The weight of Wilt in his hand felt wrong. He looked down at his sword. The blade was completely gone. Adam's eye darted up in absolute panic. He found the top half of his crimson blade clamped firmly between Saitama's teeth. Saitama casually spat the shattered metal out. Ting.

The blade bounced off the cobblestone. Adam's entire body began to tremble violently. The rage evaporated, instantly replaced by a cold, suffocating, primal terror. He wasn't fighting a Huntsman. He was fighting a god. Every instinct in Adam's body screamed at him to run. But his pride, the toxic, radicalized pride that had just been utterly crushed by Blake Belladonna, refused to let him flee again.

"Die..." Adam screamed in sheer desperation.

"JUST DIE!!!" He raised Blush, the rifle-scabbard, and fired a rapid volley of high-caliber Dust rounds directly at Saitama's face. The bullets simply flattened against the hero's nose and bounced off like dried peas. Completely blinded by panic and desperation, Adam threw his useless gun aside and charged forward, determined to attack the invincible man in close quarters. He leaped into the air, attempting a high-speed, sweeping dropkick directly at Saitama's center of mass.

At that exact moment, Saitama casually raised his right fist, intending to scratch his cheek. Adam's downward momentum carried him flawlessly, unstoppably forward. His crotch connected directly with Saitama's raised, rock-hard fist. GONG. The sound that echoed down the quiet Mistral street was sickeningly hollow. Time seemed to stop entirely for Adam Taurus. The world lost all color. His eyes bulged out of his skull, every single nerve ending in his body screaming in a chorus of absolute, unheroic agony.

Adam slowly slid off Saitama's fist, collapsing onto the cobblestones in the fetal position. His eyes rolled back into his head, a pathetic, high-pitched wheeze escaping his lips as he was instantly and completely incapacitated. A few feet away, Neo visibly flinched. She crossed her legs tightly and covered her mouth, her face contorting into a massive, sympathetic cringe. Saitama blinked, looking down at his fist, and then down at the twitching extremist on the ground.

"Oops," Saitama muttered, his expression completely blank.

"This feels... oddly nostalgic." Saitama tilted his head when looking to Adam.

"You know... You kinda remind me of Sonic. He's much faster though." Before Saitama could apologize to the unconscious man, a low, terrifying rumble vibrated through the soles of his boots. The cobblestone street violently shook. Neo gasped, losing her balance and grabbing onto a nearby lamppost. Saitama simply stood his ground, his eyebrows raising slightly as the wind abruptly changed direction. A massive, unnatural shadow fell over the street. Saitama and Neo looked up.

The night sky above Upper Mistral was completely blotted out. Flocks of massive Nevermores and Griffons eclipsed the fractured moon, their talons carrying hundreds of heavy, land-bound Grimm directly toward the academy perched on the mountain's peak.

"Well," Saitama sighed, watching the horrifying swarm descend upon the city.

"There goes getting a good night's sleep."