User blog:Heliosluna/VILT: Volume 1 Episode 1 The Shadow Dust

Long ago, before time had a name, there existed two brothers who created the world. The older brother ruled over creation, light, order, and destiny, while the younger brother commanded destruction, darkness, chaos, and coincidence. One day, the older brother created man, and gifted the world Remnant with a miraculous substance known as dust. Man worshipped the older brother, their creator, with great reverence. Unbeknownst to them, the younger brother lurked in the shadows, cultivating anger for his brother, as no one ever paid him any respect.

One day, the younger brother got an idea. He took a handful of the dust, something man didn’t know existed, and corrupted it with his power. The substance became known in legend as shadow dust, a substance that corrupted all it touched. From the shadow dust, monstrosities known as the creatures of grimm emerged, creatures bent on the destruction of man and all of his creations. Man struggled greatly against this new threat, and when all seemed lost, man discovered dust and used it to fend off the creatures of grimm. From man’s victory, four kingdoms emerged, Vale at the center, Atlas to the north, Vacuo to the west, and Mistral to the east.

The younger brother, enraged at his failure to destroy man, left Remnant in a fit of rage, shattering part of the world’s moon. But before he left, he had one last thing he needed to do. He snuck into houses, the shadow dust in tow, and cast it upon the children of all that had wronged him, the warriors who defeated the grimm. The children affected by the shadow dust mutated into horrific humans with physical features of the grimm. Horrified by what happened to their children, the families of the victims cast them out into the wilderness, most of the victims were never heard from again. The victims eventually reintegrated themselves into society, from then on the victims were called the grimmspawn, and despite keeping their intelligence, were often discriminated for their appearance.

But the shadow dust wasn’t done causing misery, after decades, it became an aware, sentient being. This manifestation of the shadow dust called itself Malacoda, and sought nothing more to carry on the legacy of the younger brother by destroying man.

Three teenagers sat in the auditorium of their academy, eager to find out who would be going to Beacon, the academy that taught the strongest huntsmen and huntresses in the world. But at the same time, they were waiting for another reason. “Vulcan has to be coming, right? It’s not like him to miss things like this.” The youngest male, a red haired dark skinned boy wearing a blue vest, said.

“Give him time, Ivor, those idiots must be harassing him again.” The boy’s younger sister replied. She had a lighter skin tone compared to her brother, and had strawberry blonde hair.

“I just hope he’s okay Laurel, you know how people treat him.” The last boy spoke, he was a couple months older than the other two and had brown hair and green eyes.

“Me too Turkis, just because he’s disfigured doesn’t mean he’s not human.” Laurel spoke as a boy walked toward them. Like the rest of the group he wore a blue vest. Wrappings covered every part of visible skin on his body, making him appear like a mummy.

“Sorry I’m late, got held up by those jerks in Blaze’s gang.” The boy spoke.

“I’m just glad you’re okay, Vulcan.” Turkis said, smiling.

“Be quiet, the assembly’s starting.” Ivor hissed. The assembly went by in a flash, but the group did hear their names called.

“Our final students going to Beacon are as follows, Ivor Adams, Laurel Adams, Turkis Johnson, and Vulcan Salamandra.” The headmaster announced, in reaction the group high fived each other.

“I’m glad none of those jerks in Blaze’s gang are going to Beacon.” Laurel admitted.

Vulcan let out a sigh, “It doesn’t matter, there's always someone like them, it won’t change anything.”

Turkis put his arm around Vulcan’s shoulder. “Don’t be like that Vulc, it’s not like you’re alone, we’re going with you after all.” Admittedly, the group could see why people would bully their oldest member, he was covered from head to toe in wrappings, no one had ever seen him eat, and back in their dorm, he always made the room a certain temperature. He had told them the wrappings were because of a skin condition that got agitated when exposed to light, so the wrappings supposedly helped with it.

“Turkis is right Vulcie, we’ll be there for you whenever you need it.” Laurel comforted as they got up to walk back to their dorm.

“So how is your family doing Vulc?” Ivor inquired. Vulcan turned to look at his friend, if they could see under his wrappings, he would be smiling.

“They’re doing great Ivor, Helena is still training to be a huntress and Alder Just entered an academy in Mistral.” Vulcan replied in a cheery tone.

“I suppose we should start packing up, don’t want to wait till the last minute to get our stuff ready.” Laurel said, the boys nodded in agreement. The next thirty minutes involved gathering all their belongings and stuffing them into suitcases of various sizes. Vulcan spent the least amount of time packing, having only a few puzzles, books, and various forms of dust to pack up, the rest of the time he spent helping the others pack up.

“Well that’s everything, I guess we should just wait till tomorrow.” Turkis suggested, giddy over the fact that they would be living in the fabled Beacon academy in just a few short hours. Vulcan crawled up to his bed and laid down. Faint snoring could be heard. The others took this as a sign that they should take a break, and they too laid down, falling asleep instantly.

The next morning they were flying to Beacon on an airship with the rest of the students selected for the academy. Vulcan was wearing his more casual clothes, black and white robes, underneath he wore matching armor decorated with intricate designs and spines. Vulcan laid back in his seat reading The Big Book of Grimm, his favorite. Ivor was looking out the windows, Turkis was going to the bathroom, and Laurel was talking to some of her friends. He didn’t even notice the girl tugging at his wrappings.

“Hello, Remnant to mummy face! Can you hear me?” She seemed a bit annoyed at him so she must have been trying to get his attention for awhile. She was a fair-skinned young girl with choppy black neck-length hair that graduated to dark red at the tips. She wore a black long-sleeved dress with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves. Her outfit was topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins.

“What do you need, miss?” Vulcan asked, confused as to what she wanted.

“I was trying to ask for your name, but you seemed so focused on that book to the point that if the airship crashed you wouldn’t even notice.” Her voice changed to a tone so sugary it could give someone diabetes.

“Well I’m Vulcan Salamandra, and you are?” Vulcan asked the girl in red.

“I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose, it’s a pleasure to meet you Vulcan, what’s with the bandages?” Ruby asked. Wondering what was with the wrappings.

“Well I have skin that gets agitated when exposed to light so the wrappings help deal with that.” Vulcan responded.

A girl walked up to Ruby looking a bit annoyed. “Ruby could you leave the poor guy alone.” The girl was a fair skinned young woman with lilac eyes and yellow hair that graduated to gold at the tips, at the top of her hair she had a cowlick. She wore a tan jacket that bared her midriff. Underneath this, she wore a low cut yellow crop top. An orange infinity scarf and black fingerless gloves completed her outfit.

“Oh don’t worry, she’s not causing any problems.” Vulcan assured the girl.

“Sorry if my sister was bothering you, the name’s Yang, Yang Xiao Long.” Yang said.

“Wow, if you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have even guessed you two were related.” Vulcan said in astonishment.

“Well I’m her older parental half-sister, so we’re not totally one hundred percent sisters, but still.” Yang said.

The hologram of a woman showed up were a news broadcast was a moment before. She appeared to be a middle-aged woman that had very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green and she wore thin ovular glasses. She had dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar. She wore a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flared in pleats at the wrist.

“Hello, and welcome to Beacon.” The hologram spoke.

A boy stood in front of the hologram, “Who is she?”

“My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world.” The hologram finished.

“Well we’re about to land soon, so see ya.” Ruby said and she and Yang walked away. Laurel walked forward, she wore a pastel red skirt and combat boots as well as a black dress with yellow highlights.

“Who were they?” She asked as the ship was about to land.

“New friends.” Vulcan replied as Turkis and Ivor returned. Turkis wore armor that had a long, segmented section on his arms, each segment alternating between dark grey and dark red, reaching all the way to the bottom of his hand. He also wore a black, fingerless glove on his hand and a black gauntlet on his forearm, over the segmented armor, which also has small pieces of dark red armor on it. Finally, his armored boots were dark brown and gold. Ivor wore a black shirt with a blue jacket with silver accents and black dress pants. The group sat down and chatted while some kid was lurched over a trash can barfing his guts out.

9 black cloaked figures stood in a dark room, the only forms of illumination were flickering torches powered by fire dust, suspended to the wall via bones. “Do we have any information on Draghignazzo?” One of the figures spoke.

“Graffiacane should be returning shortly, Rubicante. He should have some information as to Draghignazzo’s whereabouts. We might have killed him, but he was powerful enough to come back” Another figure spoke in a female's voice.

“When should he return, Calcabrina?” A third figure spoke in a gruff voice.

“I don’t know Barbariccia.” Calcabrina replied. Another figure entered the room.

“Brothers and sisters, I have news as to Draghignazzo’s location.” It spoke in a feral voice.

“Well, where is he Graffiacane?” A fourth figure inquired.

“We have searched for years Alichino, but we may have finally caught him.” Graffiacane responded.

“That doesn’t answer my question, Graffiacane.” Alichino responded.

“Yes, where is the traitor?” A fifth figure hissed.

“Farfarello, he is at Beacon academy.”