The good news was that he managed to assimilate the Template to a certain degree, and aside from the fact that my physical body looked way differently and an occasional flayboynt voice sounded in his mind, everything was rather good.
One of the added benefits of the Template was that he already had awakened Magic, as in the Canon, Ardyn Izunia had Magic in his blood, which meant that he was Sirius or... Ardyn had one too.
He would need to sort out the name, because the greater side effect of the Template was that his memories were getting rather merged together, and sometimes it was pretty hard to tell which memory belonged to whom.
Even though his willpower was enough to withstand the Template Merge, he would dare to say that it was entirely without any side effects. Adopting the name Ardyn was more apt, when even his physical body was that of the Ardyn Izunia or Ardyn Lucis Caelum when he was young.
Another good news was that he got the weapon that he grew in the Gacha, together with the Armiger, Warping, and repurposed Starscourge that he couldn't or didn't dare to use right now for the time being.
Using the Magics of Lucis Royal Line was something that came naturally to him, as if it was already written in his DNA.
The two Gyrinxes, Bastet and Maahes, were sleeping soundly on the small campfire that he managed to make. They were bigger than ordinary cats and far more dangerous than the ones as well.
Their claws were strong enough to cut through steel, and they also possessed Innate Illusion Magic, which made they pretty problematic to deal with. They were both bonded to him, and they were rather tame unless he woke them during the time when they were sleeping.
This brought the current situation.
Among all possible locations, he was dropped into the continent of Solitas...
Solitas had a cold climate, which made it mostly inhospitable to both Humans and even the creatures of Grimm. It's described as easy to get lost in, especially in its tundras. In certain areas, forests such as the Snowbound Forest are capable of growing.
And because this world was hellhole even more than usual, it was freezing there, and he was dropped in the middle of the snowy wasteland. The only saving grace of the entire thing is the fact that there were no Grimms.
So far.
Which was good.
But as Ardyn lacked Aura and he could barely control the Mana in his body, he was pretty worried that he would soon be killed by something. Another problem that there was... the area of food.
Fortunately enough, the two Gyrinxes were rather apt at finding something alive that he could eat, which led him to roasting small polar rabbits over the campfire. The real problem was...
He needed to get out of here, but he had no idea where to go.
And this world, according to what Murasaki told him, was several times the size of Earth, so even the continents were enormous, and walking in the freezing cold was a rather foolish thing to do.
Fortunately enough, as a result of the Template Merger, he was slowly comprehending Original Ardyn's memories and started learning to control Mana. And because he had two Gyrinx Familiars, he was picking really fast on it.
It was still unknown if it was the result of his talent or the Familiar contract or both of these things combined. With the control of Mana in place, he used some really rudimentary spells, but the one he used most was the one to create fire.
Heat was paramount.
At least on the brighter side of things, if it could be even called such... when he was dropped here, he got two gifts.
One of them was a set of warmer clothes, because if not for that, he would be as good as dead. Another was a small booklet that contained information about the history and current state of things in the world of Remnant.
Which was good.
At least he won't be like the country bumpkin.
Not to mention, he knew practically nothing about the RWBY.
He just watched some episodes and read some fanfics when he was younger... around twenty years ago. He remembered only something of the backround and some random tidbits of the story, but it wasn't anything significant.
The first thing that was much different from the Canon was that this version of the world was much darker, much more Magical, and everything was far more powerful.
There were still only four Kingdoms.
Atlas, whose official name was The Atlesian Dominion.
Mistral, whose official name was the Empire of Mistral.
Vacuo, whose official name was the Vacuan Sultanate.
Vale, whose official name was the Kingdom of the Vale.
Apparently, in the past, there were a few more kingdoms, but they fell to the Grimm or infighting. What was interesting was that every few centuries, someone tried to establish a new kingdom, but not many lasted their first century. The reason why these four managed to survive for many, many millennia was due to their close proximity, which allowed for mutual help and development.
Then, there were some things that he remembered in the canon that ended in a different way.
First thing, the Great War never really happened, because the world was far bigger than in canon, there was more than enough resources for everyone... as long as they cleared out the Grimm from the way. And because of the superpowered Grimm that were now everywhere and made the canon version look tame, they couldn't afford to wage war.
Second thing, the Faunus Right Revolution never happened in the first place. Mostly because the humans had overhelming power in their hands and they also had the exclusive dominion over Magic and more advanced Aura Training Methods.
The Faunus Rights Revolution was a conflict sparked by Faunus resisting attempts by Humans to centralize their race in Menagerie and to gain the possibility of rising within the social hierarchy of the existing kingdoms.
Unfortunately for the Faunus, tensions quickly escalated into conflict, and when battles broke out across the continents of Anima and Sanus, some Nobles died in the skirmishes.
And when the full might of the Vacuan Sultanate, Kingdom, and Vale and Empire of Mistral put against the mashed-up rebels that consisted of the Faunus forces... the result was a grand genocide that resulted in systematically killing approximately 90% of the Faunus male population overall and 100% of the male population above age 8.
The Atlas was an interesting case because, according to public knowledge, they gave the rebels a chance. Fight and prove their worth; winning means survival, losing means death... in the end, within the Atlas, most Faunus perished because they refused to listen to the words of the Trifarix Council.
Shockingly, those who accepted and won the gladiatorial matches were granted some rights and the possibility of rising in status. Atlas was an extremely militaristic Kingdom that wasn't ruled by a monarch, but rather by the Council of Three, also known as the Trifarius Council.
The only things that mattered in there were power and merit.
Everything else was secondary.
The more Ardyn read about the situation of Faunus, the more disturbing it was on some level. Overall, most of the Faunus were either slaves in both Mistral and Vacuo, where they were just goods and not people... while in the Vale, a special class of under-privileged pseudo-citizens who were on the lowest of the low on the social ladder.
Menagerie became a Special Administration Zone that technically didn't belong to anyone, but Atlas had a military presence there and was overseeing the continent from time to time, aside from conducting expeditions into the depths of the continent for rare resources.
Another thing that was different was the Magic.
Because of the fall of two Gods in this world whose Divine Blood, Flesh, Essence, and Souls served as nourishment for the world, this world was immensely Magical. Yet, the Magic itself was rare among the people.
Magic was only passed through the Blood. While everyone could get their Aura Unlocked, for obtaining Magic, one needed to be born with it. Most Mages, Wizards, and Sorcerers across the world came from the Aristocratic Bloodline Lineages that could trace their lines to ancient times.
Some of their ancestors were among the very first humans who, according to legend, drank the Blood of God of Light to obtain Magic in the first place. Ardyn spent two hours reading the information about the world and learning, before he decided to go out and obtain two things.
Food and wood.
That was of paramount importance right now, as the cave where he was dropped was relatively safe. Once he gathered some food and wood, he could try to see any signs of the civilization, because sooner or later, he would need to leave.
As he stood up and adjusted his clothes, he took his sword, the Rakshasa Blade, which was an ornately crafted sword with a crimson blade. Certainly, it was a piece of art that had to be told...
Rakshasa Blade wasn't an ordinary weapon though... It was a Device from an anime, Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry.
Even though he never heard about it, the fact that it was a crystallization of his soul or somehow connected to it or whatever, it was a powerful growth-type weapon that could grow alongside him and had even some special abilities that he would need to uncover.
Because of the memories of the original Ardyn, he had enough knowledge of how to use a sword and defend himself in case he was attacked by some Grimm.
Having memories didn't mean having the skill or the muscle memory to execute the moves perfectly.
Fortunately enough, it seemed that his area was devoid of them, but that was only for the time being.
That could change at any given moment.
"Bastet, Maahes, come on... we are going on the exploration, so I am counting on you..."
The two Gyrinxes woke up as they looked at him with a pretty annoying expression because they were sleeping rather comfortably next to the campfire that he made. Their fur was thick, so the cold wasn't really that problematic for them due to the large cats.
Ardyn ironically needed their help in tracking the prey because they were experts in that, and they would also prevent him from getting lost in this place. Outside of his cave, it was primarily just the snow, frozen landscape, and that was it.
He adjusted his clothes as he followed after the two Gyrinxes, who sprinted into the action, and all three of them went to search for something to eat. The rabbits from the morning were already eaten, as even the two overgrown cats needed to eat.
And they ate a lot.
Thus, they also helped in gathering the food.
As Ardyn left the safety of his cave, where he was dwelling for the time being, he was rather pleased that it was still daytime and the weather was rather nice.
"So where now? We have a few hours until it will be dark..."
He knew one or two things about survival in the wilderness... perk of the older time when he was starving his company and was smuggling weapons. Often, personally, and even more often, to various destinations that were not the most hospitable around.
He muttered as he followed after the Gyrinxes into the frozen wastelands. The two felines were perfect trackers and hunters, so the possibility of coming up empty or getting lost was pretty close to zero.
Even then, finding something that was actually alive in this place was pretty hard. With bits of Mana that could be learned how to control, albeit in a pretty crude manner, he was constantly creating a small flame that was generating at least some warmth.
For one hour, he kept walking across the snowy landscape as the two large cats finally caught the smell of blood. Which means that there was injured prey somewhere or injured humans...
Well, he shrugged as he decided to follow after Bastet and Maahes.
If it came to the worst, he could use the Armiger.
Armiger, or also Armiger Arsenal, and sometimes referred to as the Power of Kings, was a Magic that only those of Lucian Royal Blood could use. It allowed one to conjure Magical Weapons, the Royal Weapons of the previous Kings of Lucis, and control them to the user's wishes.
The only thing that Armiger required was Mana, and unbeknownst to Ardyn, he had more than enough Mana to sustain the continual use of the Armiger for some time. He could also use Warp, even though it was something that he had totally no experience with, and Warping in combat without prior training seemed to be...
Pretty dangerous.
After following his two familiars, he arrived at the plateau, which was the source of blood.
Much to his surprise, it wasn't food or prey... instead, it was a crashed airship of some kind. Not really big, but still big enough to transport a good number of people. His mind quickly raced, because if he needed to either quickly go in, scout the ship, and disappear, or disappear outright.
In the end, the ship was pretty tempting for him, so even in the risk of Grimm that could be lured here, he decided to go in and scout the remnants for the supplies, weapons, or anything...
The best thing would be if he could get his hands on some communication device or whatever.
"Is there anyone alive?"
He asked the cats, as one of them looked toward the vehicle and gave him something that looked like a nod of agreement, but it raised its right front paw and tapped on the ground.
Once.
Ardyn figured out that it must mean that only one survivor was there.
"Let's go... like they said, no risk, no gain."
He said with a laugh as he approached the crashed airship. The first bad sign was that the entire place was littered with corpses, because there were at least ten dead soldiers all around the place, which was bad.
"This would lure here Grimm faster than anyone could think..."
He grimaced at the thought as he carefully entered the aircraft. As was predicted, all the people he found were already dead, which wasn't really that surprising, actually. It seemed that they were most probably attacked by some kind of aerial Grimm and went down...
The first priority that he had was to gather supplies from the ship, then find a way to transport the supplies and also find the survivor of the crash that one Gyrinxes pointed out.
"Bastet, scout the perimeter and see if there are any Grimm approaching. Maahes comes with me."
Bastet gave him an annoyed meow as she then sat down and started scouting the surrounding area with her Magic, while Ardyn and Maahes entered the wreck of the airship...
Whatever attack the ship has most probably left, as neither of his familiars sensed anything hostile in the area, and by looking at the state of the airship. It was more than evident that nothing here really worked, so any hopes to call for help were null and void.
"Meow!"
Suddenly, he heard meowing as he turned around and saw that Maahes was pointing at one of the corpses that was in the seat. It was probably a male... hard to tell as the skull was entirely crushed together with good parts of the upper body.
"What are you pointing at?"
The male Gyrinx jumped on the corpse and pointed with its front paw at the bracelet that it was wearing.
"This thing?"
He took the bracelet from the corpse of a young man, as he was dead and wouldn't really need it anymore. As he held the bracelet in his hand, he suddenly saw some kind of Runes.
Then the information from the booklet that he received as his starting gift jumped in.
Dimensional Equipment.
A very rare object, enchanted and engraved by the Master Mages in Spatial Magic, as it was equipped with the capability of storing things. Obviously, it wasn't really big and nothing alive could be put there, but for Ardyn, it solved a problem with a lack of transportation means.
He put the bracelet on his hand and tried directing his Mana toward the bracelet, as he soon gained access once the piece of equipment was activated. It seemed that he was in luck, because there were some supplies there, medicine, food, fuel, and other necessities to survive in the frozen wasteland of the Solitas.
Aside from that, there were some Lien cards that he would check at a later date and some miscellaneous things that he would need to sort out at a later date.
"Where is the survivor?"
He asked his Gyrinx, as the cat jumped down from the corpse, and led him to the place where it sensed the life signs. He followed after the male Gyrinx, until they arrived not far from the crashed aircraft.
"So I was right... It was an aircraft transporting students from Atlas to some mission, most probably... if it went down, they would conduct a search for it."
The only survivor of the entire aircraft was a young girl, around 160cm tall with light blue hair and pale skin. She was out of cold, wearing some sort of power armor or something like that, which he managed to recognize at a glance.
Even though the technological trees of Earth and Remnant couldn't be more different, some concepts remained similar or even the same.
"Certainly... she looks some from the powerful backround... these pieces on her are probably far more valuable than the entire aircraft."
Ardyn said after he lightly skimmed over the power armor that she was wearing... or rather, its parts that were not damaged or outright destroyed. It was very clear that compared to the equipment of other students or even soldiers, it was far inferior.
"Damm... bringing her together with me back would be a pain in the ass... dammit..."
He wanted to kick the ground, only to realize that there was only snow here.