Thanks to TehGramerPolise and MasterofBones for their help with this chapter.
As I fell down into the seemingly bottomless pit, I was able to reflect on a couple of things. For one, the trap door had closed tightly almost as soon as it had opened, shutting me in. I had attempted to stop my fall with my scythe, only to have it bounce off the wall fruitlessly, even with the flames of Sarongar swirling around its blade. Which meant that switching into my bird form and cutting my way back out really wasn't an option.
Two, it was obvious that wherever I was going was probably not the right way, which left only two other options for Jaune, although I had a hunch that he had probably gone in the intended direction.
Three, I was falling down rather quickly, and here's the thing about tumbling down a chute, pipe, trap door, whatever: there's always spikes at the bottom. It may seem a little cliche, but it's practically a rule; even if at the bottom there are only some half-heartedly place wooden stakes, there will be some kind of pointy object waiting to greet you.
With that in mind, I waited until I saw a hint of light rapidly approaching, along with the outlines of some very sharp stone spires, and then concentrated to send myself into my bird form.
Nothing.
I blinked in confusion and with barely a centimeter left to go, managed to swing my scythe to wrap around one of the large formations of pointed stone to throw myself off to the side.
I landed with a grunt and then stood up, staring at my hands, then attempted to bring forth my Semblance once more.
Nothing. It wasn't even like I couldn't concentrate, or that I was somehow being blocked: rather; it felt like I had just reached into the very essence of my being and just found it… empty. I winced and gingerly reached down to my side where one of the spikes had nicked me, and I grimaced as it came away bloody.
"Well, first order of business then," I muttered and swiftly ripped a strip out of my shirt, which I wrapped around my waist in a crude bandage.
Truth be told, I was rattled, I had experiences in the past where my Aura had run out, or been drained by some foul monstrosity. But I had never had this feeling of emptiness that I did now.
What really had me spooked wasn't even necessarily the gaping void I felt, it was the fact that I hadn't even noticed that it was missing until I had reached for it. Something that had been with me since I could walk was now gone, without warning, and without explanation. It was like standing naked in a briar patch.
"Hello." A voice suddenly echoed.
I whirled around, my scythe at the ready; as chills ran down my spine.
I knew that voice, a prickling at the edge of a memory.
It was the voice of death, of despair, of a thousand different paths where Remnant met its end; that voice was a constant in all of them.
"Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello." The word repeated over and over, the voice strangely filled with static, like it was coming over a malfunctioning television set. I heard something slither… ooze in the darkness. I whispered the incantation to bring Sarongar's flames to my blade, and breathed a sigh of relief when it worked.
Then choked with horror and revulsion at what it revealed as the room brightened from the fire.
Standing several meters from my feet was a lake, for lack of a better term. It was an oozing pit of a black, tarry substance that stretched for at least fifty meters, disappearing into the darkness behind.
"I am the pirate signal. Let me in." The voice cooed. The lake roiled and churned as things began to emerge from beneath the surface, walking forward on bowed and twisted limbs. I watched in horrified fascination as the first of them walked out onto the stone floor, it was in the shape of a human, but its flesh was all made of the same substance as the lake itself. With a scream it threw itself at me, I stepped forward and swung my scythe, slicing it in half like a knife through butter.
Some of the substance splattered on the stone at my feet and with a shock, I realized that I recognized it; "It's the same stuff from those Sunshine Twins." I muttered aloud.
"I am the ear worm," The voice continued to rant as hundreds of more of the things rose from the lake, "I am the word virus. Let me in. I am the Dreamer's dream, let me in."
I stepped back from the lake and desperately looked around. "Oh damn." I swore; I was surrounded, the stone floor beneath my feet and the spikes behind me an island in the middle of a black ocean. Even as I watched, larger and more twisted creations began to rise from the muck in the distance; all making their way towards me.
As I cut two more of the human shaped creatures into pieces, I wracked my brain for ideas.
I was trapped on an island, surrounded by a seemingly sentient black tar that was sending what seemed to be an endless swarm of creatures to attack me. My Semblance wasn't functioning and any hit I took would not be blunted by Aura; overall the situation looked pretty dire.
That's about when it started getting even worse.
Without warning, the stone beneath me trembled slightly and I whirled around, "Oh damn," I breathed.
It looked like someone had taken a Beowolf and had decided to slap six more legs onto it, give it a couple more eyes, double its size, and then slapped a tail with four whip-like tendrils for good measure.
It opened its maw, let out a bubbling roar, and then leapt toward me.
I whirled to the side, lashing out with my scythe in the same movement, leaving a deep cut in its side. Then instantly I leapt backward as the monster's tails flew right past my face; giving me a up-close view of the lines of the wicked, barbed hooks that ran along their lengths.
It turned and immediately lunged forward, its jaws open wide; but I was ready for it, and all it got for its trouble was a mouthful of Dust rounds as I opened fire with the shotgun mode. It recoiled sharply and let out a howl of fury.
"Yeah, eat it you-" I began as I reloaded, then the entire creature's body shifted and the whip-like tendrils erupted all over its body. For a moment they twisted in the air wildly; then they all shot toward me.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as I switched to the scythe form of my weapon, invoking the flames of Sarongar along its blade. I then began to spin the weapon in a fiery pin-wheel, slicing and burning the tendrils as they came.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the tendrils stopped and the moment I did I rushed forward and with a roar, cleaved the creature in two.
The light fled from its eyes and with a burbling whine it sank to the ground and began dissolving into the tar, flowing back towards the lake.
I then watched, wide-eyed as the tar from the creature flowed, swirling in the lake and then began rising; a few seconds later, I was looking at the Beowolf thing once more and it let out a low growl as it began advancing back toward the shore.
I looked around to see a similar scene playing out from the remains of the human-form creatures I had slain; the substance just simply melted back into the lake, and the creature reformed anew.
"Well this puts a new emphasis on the word 'futile'." I muttered.
That's when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of gold and I turned my gaze to see some of the black tar slide away to reveal a flat, golden circle on the ground, twisting branches visible upon its surface.
A Conduit.
I switched my weapon into its shotgun form and went to town, clearing a wide swath of the approaching monsters before holstering the weapon and yanking out the flask of Mistralian Gold from my belt and chugging down half of the remaining amount; careful to ration it despite my haste.
The anima coursed through me, as I capped the flask and thrust it back into my belt. I concentrated, sending the golden energy flowing into my hand. Suddenly there was a screech of rage filled with static and the creatures all stopped in their tracks and began to writhe in agony.
I didn't stop to watch as in desperation I dashed to the circle and went down to my knees, knocking a closed fist on the floor. To my relief there was a pull, but there was something odd… then with a shock, I realized that it wasn't just that small circle that was a Conduit… it was the entire floor.
I began to consider the ramifications of what I was about to do, but was interrupted as the creatures began to charge forward once more.
"Here it goes." I muttered and opened the way to Agartha.
There was an instant of vertigo as I fell sideways out of the portal, mud clung to my hands and legs as hit the ground and I reached for my Semblance. I felt the familiar feeling of Aura wash over me, and I took flight as a bird, letting out a harsh cry of joy. Moments later, a wave of mud flowed over where I had just been, and a low moan echoed through the air.
Several of the mud golems that had appeared when we had tried to reach Agartha from Mountain Glenn emerged from the muck, their empty eyes lifting to follow me as I flew overhead.
That's when black tendrils whipped out of the portal, knocking the golems off of the branch and into the endless abyss below.
"LET ME IN!" The strange, static voice from before shouted. An alien triumph suffusing his cry, which seemed to rebound and echo, until all of Agartha trembled.
The black tendrils continued to flow along the branch, and as I watched, the mud solidified and turned a dark, sickly green. This time, I felt it as the Aura left me, it felt like a hand of ice reached into my very soul and pulled taking my innards with it. The chill spread from my core to the rest of my body, and I had a brief flash of vertigo as my Semblance wavered, turning me back into my human form, plummeting into the void below.
In desperation, I quickly summoned Sarongar's flames around my scythe and swung it into a passing branch, sinking it deep into the wood. I hung there as I watched in horrified fascination as the tendrils continued to flow, followed by more of that black substance which began to pour out like a river. I gagged as a smell like rotting flesh hit me, and the humanoid monsters from before began to emerge from the portal, screaming and gibbering as they began to run along the branches.
I threw myself up onto the branch above me and turned to watch as an entire line of the mud golems rose up to meet the swarm of creatures. The golems rose high into the air, forming massive fists that they brought crashing down on the monsters, crushing them into pulps.
However, even as I watched, the black, tarry substance that comprised the creatures began to spread into the golems; solidifying them and turning them the same sickly green hue as the rest of the mud tainted by the foul black tar. The monsters continued to run forward, pounding their fists on the defenders; sending cracks through their bodies.
"Well, well." A calm voice remarked beside me, "This is quite the mess."
I whirled to see Ozpin calmly standing there, watching the scene unfold, his hands resting on the top of his cane.
"Oz? What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded.
He shrugged, "I've been investigating Agartha; seeing if I couldn't find out why it has been acting so strangely."
Only Ozpin would have described mud golems attempting to murder anyone that opened a way to Agartha as simply 'acting strangely'.
"From what I've gathered, it sounds like Ironwood sent something in that whatever controls Agartha didn't like," I informed him.
The headmaster pursed his lips, "That fits with what I've seen." He admitted, "Anything to report since Mountain Glenn?"
I shrugged, "Met up with Winter, she asked for my help with something going down at a base in Atlas where Ironwood messed with something he shouldn't have." I looked back down at the spreading taint, "I uh… just got sidetracked from there."
"I see." Ozpin turned to look further down to the root of the branch and I followed his gaze to see the black substance pouring out of a portal, surging towards us in a wave.
I readied my scythe but Ozpin raised his hand and stepped forward, he lifted his cane and the gears within turned as he brought it down sharply on the wood at his feet.
A wave of green energy flew forth and collided with the substance, there was a shriek and the substance receded back into the portal. My jaw dropped as I looked around to see that all around, the black substance was recoiling and receding until it was merely a few tendrils extending out from the original portal.
I let out a slow whistle, "That's a hell of a trick." I remarked.
He shrugged, "It won't hold it back for long, but I will remain here to keep it check."
"That's nice to hear, but just what the hell is that stuff?"
"A malaise of madness that transcends words… and worlds." Ozpin replied simply.
I let out out a sigh as I sheathed my weapon, there I went again, expecting a straight answer.
Ozpin reached into his coat and pulled out a purple, stone amulet in the shape of a scarab; which he handed to me. "Here, take this, it should get you back to Jaune."
I shook my head in wonder, "You're a miracle worker Oz," He smiled slightly and was about to say something when his eyes widened as he looked over my shoulder.
I whirled around just in time to see one of the tendrils that had somehow snaked its way up behind me and lashed out like a whip, slamming into my left arm even as I felt a sharp prick on my finger. The world swirled and shifted around me as a fire flared up from my forearm to my shoulder and I lost consciousness.