The Greatest Tragedy
Once my brain has alighted upon a subject, it often does not let it go until ever stone is unturned. After writing about the impossible task the God of Light had placed upon Ozma, I went to bed, and immediately a new thought popped into my head.
Ozma will never die.
He can not ask or promise Salem to die with him, because she was not part of the conditions from the God of Light. The conditions were to bring humanity together so that they could live in harmony with one another.
Ozpin/Ozma could *lie* to Salem, sending her to the Afterlife alone to wait for his return (if that is even possible). But I think it is beyond that. He told her everything in his first incarnation, so she KNOWS he can not die until harmony is united.
Oh...my...god... everything makes sense.
She can never die as long as she never accepts death. He can never die unless humanity is basically united in harmony. She will NEVER accept death now. She will keep the world divided and continue to be the antagonist to his efforts so that they can stay living in this world, even if it means they will forever be separated by war.
Jinn said in the Lost Fable that Salem became a being of infinite life with a desire for pure destruction, but was she really
Remember, Salem was able to live a quiet, normal life away from humanity. She was able to love Ozma even in his new form. She was motherly and doting upon her children. All of this naturally. Even now, she would send her servants away so as not to destroy them when in a fit of rage.
Ozma is her heart. His very existence destroys her and yet keeps her from becoming truly Grimm. She is a walking contradiction of the forces of destruction that house her and her own humanity. A being with nothing but a desire for destruction can not, by its very nature, be motherly or loving.
However, this means she is constantly fighting herself. She loses control a lot, she succumbs to the darkness within her a lot. She killed her own children and Ozma in a fit of rage, for example. She is obviously coming to wreak havoc upon the kingdom of Atlas as well. She absolutely HATES Ozma/Ozpin to the core.
And loves him just as much.
That book Blake was reading way back in V1 wasn't about Ozma/Ozpin--it was about Salem. Ozma never really tried to dominate his hosts, they kind of merged together over time, but Salem is the one fighting another soul within herself.
She knows that Ozma will never die unless humanity is living in harmony. If she dies, she will be alone in the afterlife--forever, probably. Jinn said a few times, Salem understood that the hearts of men were easily swayed. And this was from the very beginning when the Gods were in charge.
Never has there been a love story so tragic as Ozma and Salem. The gods royally screwed them both over, but I think Ozma got the worst of it.
The final battle won't be against Salem. It will be against the gods. And Salem wants them to come because it may well be the only way to break the curse upon both of them. If the gods come and wipe out all of humanity because they continue to fight amongst themselves, Ozma will die. He will have no way to reincarnate and will go to the afterlife. Either Salem will also die among them, or she will be able to accept death and finally kill herself.
The only way for Salem and Ozma to finally be together is to destroy all of humanity. Not just that, but the Gods have to be the ones to do it. If she destroys humanity on her own, it would be useless. Humans are like cockroaches and will return. She does not have the power to destroy the whole world in one blow, making it impossible for any human to return. But the Gods do. The God of Light said it himself: the WORLD would be destroyed. Not just humanity. He would make sure they could never come back again.
Salem has been waiting all this time, trying to first figure out how to collect the maidens powers and manipulate events to her advantage so that she can gather the relics, get the gods to destroy the world, and finally be with Ozma in the afterlife.
That also explains why, when asked how he could destroy Salem, Jinn said he couldn't. The conditions the gods set were ever against Ozma's ability to succeed. As long as Ozma lives, Salem will never accept death. It's twistedly beautiful.
While it seems like a hopeless situation, it isn't. There are many ways around all of this. If the only people in the world who can use magic team up together and defeat the Gods, their curses could well be lifted on both of them. But that still means endangering all of the world to do it as well as convincing Salem to join with them. Ozma can still lie to Salem and convince her to accept death (after the Grimm is cleansed) and send her to the afterlife. There is no telling what a being with powers like hers can do from the afterlife and might lead to a whole new arc, but it is a possibility.
They could summon the gods and try to convince them to renegotiate the situation, but I really doubt that would work in any setting. The gods are jerks, especially the God of Light.
A lot of people suggest sealing Salem away in one of the Vaults, or up in space. They fail to understand that sealing any great evil away is merely putting a bandaid on the problem. It guarantees the escape of said evil being, who will be hell-bent on revenge, and possibly more crazy than before since they lost all human contact. Cinder is a walking example of people willing to break her out or seek her again. Plus, while we know that the vaults can keep stuff out, we do not know how much they keep IN. .
Sealing Salem away could work as a temporary fix, but only if it is possible to get humans to live together in harmony. Since even the gods of Light and Dark could not accomplish this (see my previous post), the odds are looking like that is not an option. But it would pan out the series well, using new generations in a new arc to try and get the countries to set aside their difference and such. It would become more political and societal at that point, like Game of Thrones or something... which....well, that was not a good comparison. Game of Thrones merely emphasizes how hopeless it is to get humans to live in harmony.
I think it would help to know what the cut-off level is for harmony and fighting amongst themselves. If the God of Light was referring to a perfect, utopian world: Ozma is screwed. If he meant the majority, with the minority being ignore, Ozma has a chance.
Of course, you could always kill off the majority of people, reduce them to manageable levels where there is a higher likelihood of harmony and call in the gods to take over at that point. Ozma would never do that, not in a million years. For him, it is an unnacceptable option, and I completely understand. But I mention it as an option because it has been proven that large numbers of people tend to generate more conflict because of space, resources, and individuality.
He could go the State route and just military law everything into an Orwellian future with thought-police at every corner. Yeah...that didn't turn out well for 1984, either (back of the book strongly indicates that in the future, that society no longer existed).
So...yeah... I am seriously pitying Salem and Ozma right now. I'm going to go cry in a corner for them.