The first priority was simple in theory and complicated in execution.
Rune verification.
Qrow's command had barely settled before the entire expedition shifted into motion. Every member knew what came first. Before anything else, they had to answer a single question.
Did their power still work the same here?
Small tests began across the black expanse.
Nothing excessive or reckless. Simply controlled output with minimal exertion.
Jaune stepped back slightly, giving space as others began activating their runes one by one. Flickers of color bloomed against the monochrome world, like paint dropped onto a dark canvas.
At first glance, everything seemed… normal. Runes activated and energy responded. But the longer they watched, the clearer it became that "normal" did not mean unchanged.
"Builders, step forward," one of the Rank 2s called out.
The designated construction personnel moved as a group, their expressions already sharpening with focus. Among them was Rajah's teammate, the earth rune user, who wasted no time in stepping forward.
"Let's start simple," he muttered.
He raised his hand and conjured an earth wall out of thin air.
It formed cleanly, structure intact, texture familiar. For a brief second, it looked exactly as it would in the real world.
Then the shadow ground beneath it shifted.
Jaune's eyes narrowed.
The base of the wall began to distort.
It was being… consumed?
The shadowy ground beneath it seemed to rise in a... conceptual nature as if it were swallowing the construct. The wall didn't crumble. It simply… changed.
The color drained and the texture shifted.
Within moments, the wall was no longer earth.
It was shadow.
The builder stepped forward immediately, placing his hand against it. Others joined, running their fingers along its surface, knocking lightly against it, even striking it with controlled force.
"It's still solid," one of them said.
"Density seems to be the same," another added.
The original caster frowned, pressing his palm harder against the structure. "The laws of this realm overrode the law of our world."
Jaune stepped closer, curiosity pulling him in. He reached out and touched the wall himself.
The sensation was there.
But just like his own body, it lacked something. A subtle layer of reality was missing, replaced by something thinner, yet not weaker.
"It's likely going to happen to every construct from now on," Pyrrha said quietly, stepping up beside Jaune.
Her gaze was fixed on the wall, thoughtful.
"Hmm seems it really is like what we learnt. Everything that isn't a shadow can't enter this world. If it somehow does, it will inevitably get converted by the laws of this realm." Jaune .
She nodded slightly.
That pattern repeated.
Another builder stepped forward, this time using a different rune. A construct formed, only to be consumed and altered in the same way. Pyrrha herself stepped in next, raising her hand as her Ferrous rune activated.
Metal formed into a clean, polished structure, rising in a controlled shape.
And then…
The same result.
Shadows consumed it and converted it.
What remained was still metal in function and still responsive to her control, but visually and fundamentally altered into something that belonged to this realm.
Pyrrha exhaled softly, her expression caught between fascination and unease.
Jaune glanced at her. "You can still control it though, right?"
"Yes," she said after a moment. "It's just... the feedback from my Will feels really weird."
"That's not ominous at all," Jaune muttered.
She smiled faintly at that.
Nearby, another test drew attention.
Auberyn.
The starlight girl stepped forward, raising both hands. Light gathered instantly, forming into radiant hands that hovered just around her. Oddly enough, even after waiting for a while, they were unchanged.
Then, she created one from shadow ground. The moment her rune interacted with the environment, the result shifted.
The hand that rose from the shadowed terrain still appeared to be shaped from starlight but… it was altered. Its glow was dimmer, edges softer and threaded with darkness that coiled through the construct like veins.
"Compare," she said calmly.
One of the Rank 2s stepped forward and struck both constructs in turn. The pure starlight hand broke first but the shadow-infused one held.
A brief silence followed.
"Stronger?" someone asked.
Auberyn nodded slowly. "It seems so."
A researcher nearby adjusted their device, eyes scanning rapidly. "The environment reinforced her constructs created through it. The local laws appear to be… more dominant."
"Meaning?" Jaune asked.
"Meaning," Pyrrha said thoughtfully, "that anything shaped through this realm is strengthened by it."
As if to reinforce that point, another phenomenon occurred.
Sun Wukong stepped forward, grinning slightly. "Alright, my turn."
He raised his hand and light burst forth.
A staff formed instantly, brilliant and radiant, cutting through the monochrome like a blade of sunlight.
Unlike the other times when the ground shifted, this time the shadow beneath him recoiled.
Like it was being forced away.
The darkness bent outward, pulling back unnaturally from the light, creating space where there should have been none. The effect expanded rapidly, a widening gap forming around him as the terrain displaced itself.
"Uh…" Sun glanced down.
The hole was growing fast.
"Okay, that's new."
"Disperse it." one of the Rank 2s ordered.
Sun didn't hesitate. The staff dissolved instantly, the light vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
Silence lingered for a moment, leaving Sun in a large hole.
Then someone let out a low whistle.
"Well," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's not terrifying at all."
Pyrrha exhaled softly. "Well, I guess we can conclude that Light seems to be completely incompatible with the environment.."
"Or dominant over it," Jaune said.
"Perhaps both?"
More testing was done and Jaune himself had a chance to test out the weakening effect of his Weakness rune.
It took time, but gradually, understanding formed.
Runes functioned and their own laws remained intact. But when interacting with the environment, those laws were… negotiated and adapted.
Rewritten in subtle ways.
Once the initial testing concluded, the operation moved forward.
"Builders, begin establishing the base," a Rank 2 ordered.
The construction team wasted no time.
Structures began to rise.
Each construct, once formed, was absorbed and reshaped into shadow, becoming part of the environment while still retaining its intended function.
It was strange to watch.
Buildings that looked like silhouettes, solid yet unreal, standing against an endless void.
Jaune and Pyrrha moved with the others, taking up defensive positions as the perimeter began to take shape. Their role was simple.
Protection and observation, intervention if needed.
They fell into a rhythm after that.
A few minutes passed.
Then—
"Jaune."
He turned to see Raven.
She sat a short distance away, a chair formed from the shadow itself beneath her. Qrow sat beside her on another, his posture relaxed but his eyes constantly scanning the horizon.
Raven gestured.
"Come here."
Pyrrha gave Jaune a small nod. "Go."
He hesitated for a second, then stepped away, making his way toward them. Qrow glanced at him as he approached.
"So. How're your runes holding up?"
Jaune shrugged slightly. "Weakness seems fine. No difference so far."
"And Plunder?" Qrow asked.
Jaune grimaced faintly. "Haven't tested it."
"Why not?"
He glanced around briefly before lowering his voice. "Didn't think it was a good idea to try it on anyone here."
Qrow snorted lightly. "Hmm, why?"
Jaune continued, more serious now. "Our bodies aren't really here, while we have Aura and Will backing us, we don't really have a Body stat. If something goes wrong…"
"You'd be hitting something that can't properly resist it," Qrow finished.
Jaune nodded.
"Except... you know... them," he added, glancing at Raven.
Raven didn't react.
Shadow Rune users were different here. Their existence was more complete and real.
Jaune exhaled. "Using Plunder like that… it might not end well."
Raven finally spoke.
"Fine. Then simply don't use it on allies."
Jaune looked at her.
"What do you propose?"
"We'll test it on Stalkers. Obviously. They don't have Aura, after all."
Jaune frowned. "But they have Umbra, don't they? If it functions similar to Aura..."
"Exactly."
Qrow leaned back slightly in his chair. "Which makes you the perfect test case. If it works, we'll get a repeat of what happened in Atlas when you fought Arthur Wats. You'll hit harder than anyone else here," Qrow said.
Raven's gaze didn't waver.
"You are the only Rank 1 here with the potential to reach Rank 2 output under the right conditions."
Jaune felt that expectation settle in his mind.
Raven leaned back slightly in her shadow-formed chair. "We are going to encounter Stalkers and when we do, you're going to test it."
Jaune nodded slowly.
"…Got it."
Raven's eyes shifted to the distance.
"Hmm... seems like that test of ours will be done sooner rather than later.
The shift came without warning or even the courtesy of a moment's hesitation.
Jaune had just finished processing what Raven had said when the ground beneath him ceased to be solid.
One instant, his feet were planted on the shadowed surface, and the next, a shadow hand erupted upward from below. It seized him around the torso and before Jaune could even properly react, the ground parted.
Like ink disturbed by a sudden plunge.
He was pulled under in an instant.
His awareness twisted, stretched, and compressed all at once, like he had been forced through a space that did not obey distance. His vision blurred into darkness.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
Jaune stumbled forward as his footing returned beneath him. The ground was solid again, though it did not feel reassuring.
Raven stood beside him.
Completely still and unaffected.
Jaune was just about to curse her for teleporting them without warning, but his attention snapped forward.
A Stalker stood before them.
It was tall and physically imposing, as well as proportionally unsettling. Its frame stretched upward to at least eight feet, its limbs were slightly too long for its own body as well. Its posture appeared too composed. It stood with its arms crossed. Two shadowy white eyes stared with an intensity that felt almost judgmental. Almost as if the creature was disappointed.
Jaune felt a faint chill crawl through him.
For a moment, neither Raven nor the Stalker moved. They simply looked at one another, as if measuring something that Jaune could not perceive.
Then something in Jaune's perception shifted.
A sharp, sudden sensation flared in his weakness awareness.
His left eye.
A point of vulnerability had been exposed. His rune reacted instinctively, highlighting a flaw, a fragile point that should not have been so obvious.
His breath caught.
In the next instant, the Stalker was gone.
Or rather, it had already moved.
Jaune did not see it move. One moment it was standing at a distance, and the next it was directly in front of him.
Jaune's world narrowed to a single point. The tip of a shadow spear expanded rapidly in his vision, closing the distance to his eye faster than he could process. His body did not respond, without his Body stat, his reactions were dulled, grounded and painfully human.
The spear suddenly stopped as a faint metallic sound rang out.
A shadow blade had appeared.
It manifested directly in front of Jaune's eye, intercepting the spear at the exact point of impact. The force was completely nullified, held in place by something that should not have been strong enough, yet undeniably was.
Raven.
Jaune did not hesitate this time. He jumped backward, stumbling as he forced distance between himself and the Stalker.
Shadow tendrils had already erupted from the ground, wrapping around the Stalker's limbs with precision. They coiled tightly, binding it in place before it could act again. The creature did not struggle wildly, simply watching them.
"What the hell was that?" he snapped, his voice sharp with lingering adrenaline. Though... did his shadow self even have adrenaline? Seemed like a contradiction.
"You could have warned me."
Raven did not respond.
The spear was no longer in the Stalker's hand. It was in Raven's. She held it lightly, turning it as she examined its structure. There was no urgency in her actions, only curiosity, as if the attempted attack had been expected.
Jaune steadied his breathing and looked at the Stalker properly.
Up close, it was worse.
Its face was blank, smooth, devoid of features except for its eyes. Those white, unblinking eyes seemed to bore into him, not with hostility, but with something far more unsettling.
Jaune's Weakness felt something odd about the creature..
Emotion.
He frowned slightly, focusing on the sensation.
"It has emotions?" he said, his voice lower now.
Raven's gaze shifted toward him briefly curiosity staining her eyes.
Jaune kept his eyes on the creature, trying to interpret what he was sensing.
"It's… hungry, I think?" he said slowly.
The word felt insufficient and too simple for something that carried so much weight.
"It's also showing fear as well. It's afraid." he added after a moment.
That contradiction lingered in the air.
Before anything more could be said, a small crow landed nearby. It remained still for a brief moment before shifting, feathers giving way to form as Qrow returned to human shape.
"Well," Qrow said, glancing between them, "that didn't take long."
Jaune looked at him. "Qrow. This thing has emotions. I can feel what it's feeling."
Qrow frowned, his expression sharpening as he processed that.
He exchanged a brief glance with Raven, something unspoken passing between them.
Then he turned back to Jaune.
"I see. Test your Weakness rune," he said. "On a small area."
Jaune hesitated for only a moment before nodding.
He stepped forward slightly, focusing his intent. The rune activated condensing onto a single point.
The Stalker's hand.
The effect was immediate. The limb began to lose form, its structure breaking down as it melted into liquid shadow. It dripped downward, pooling and slipping off in slow, unnatural motion.
Jaune's eyes widened slightly at the sight and he pulled back.
Instantly, the process reversed.
The liquid shadow drew upward, reforming the hand as if nothing had happened. The structure restored itself completely, without any visible loss.
The Stalker stared at its hand.
Then it looked at Jaune.
This time, the emotion was stronger.
Shock.
Clear and unmistakable.
Then something deeper surged beneath it.
Hunger. Except this was greater. Like it wanted to gluttonize Jaune.
The creature's face changed. A mouth formed, splitting across its blank surface. It stretched into a wide, unnatural grin. The entirety of its attention was completely fixed on Jaune.
It began straining against the shadow tendrils with more intensity, its focus no longer divided between Qrow Raven and Jaune any longer.
The two twins looked at each other with seemingly another silent conversation.
Raven spoke.
"Use Plunder."
Jaune blinked. "Are you sure?"
"Do it."
There was no hesitation in her voice.
Jaune took a breath and activated the rune. The sensation began as expected, the familiar pull of connection forming between him and the target.
Then everything changed.
Instead of the tether sucking away its strength into Jaune... the Stalker's entire body collapsed.
It liquefied instantly, dissolving into pure shadow before surging forward in a single motion.
Into him.
Jaune gasped as the shadow forced itself into his form. His body immediately started expanding, stretching as his proportions shifted. He grew taller, his limbs lengthening until he matched the creature's height.
The color drained from his form, replaced by a uniform shadow.
His outline blurred, becoming less defined and less human. A sensation of powerful strength filled his body.
Qrow and Raven both watched in silence.
Jaune looked down at his hands.
They weren't his. They were longer, thinner and just... plain weird.
He flexed them slowly adjusting to what Plunder had just done.
Then, everything stopped.
A new sensation hit him.
It flooded his mind all at once, in a primal state that was unnatural. It manifested as an all powerful hunger.
It wasn't just a simple desire, but something overwhelming. It consumed his thoughts, pushing everything else aside. It was instinctual, primal, demanding in a way that left no room for reason.
His body froze and no matter how he tried, he could not move or speak.
The urge pressed down on him, suffocating and all-encompassing.
Consume.
Take.
Devour.
Jaune's vision narrowed as the feeling intensified, threatening to drown out everything else.