Life of a Grimmborn Chapter 27: Condensation
A/N: Well everyone, time for another chapter of Grimmborn! Sorry for the late update, FGO has been kicking my ass with back to back events but I try to squeeze in any time I can to write. Let's see what plans that Zelia has up her sleeves.
Dracohalo: Thanks, glad you're enjoying it. Take all the time you need to update. Rushing things are not good for quality sake.
Onyxwhip: Liking your ideas there buddy lol
Another STALKER: Referring to all your reviews, I do plan to rewrite (But not retcon) the early chapters of Grimmborn to be more polished as I did make them when I was less experienced. Hope you'll check them out when their redone.
Silverblast96: Well I'm sorry you feel that way but you are entitled to your own thoughts.
Life of a Grimmborn Chapter 27: Condensation
Numerous passerbys looked to the table in the main dining hall where Kor was currently pressed face first against the fine wood, groaning in pain. It had only been a day since he started his training with Alter and he already felt like dying. No matter how hard he fought, the woman's experience in combat and movement conquered every attempt of his. He had no real way at victory without doing something risky but last thing he'd want is another scar to worry about.
'This is ridiculous.' He thought while letting another groan escape his lungs. 'I might as well be a chew toy for her at this point with how she's been tossing me around.'
"My, Kor dear. You look terrible!"
The new voice made him struggle to look up and see Phantasma in her usual purple sundress looking down at him. He let out yet another groan and pushed himself to sit properly in the chair. "Hey Phantasma…"
The woman pushed a chair open for her to take a seat next to him and began rubbing his head in a soothing, motherly way. "Is something wrong my dear? You body looks tense and your posture is horrendous as if you just took a beating of a lifetime."
"A bit too on the nose there, you know?" Kor almost laughed with how close she was, but the pain in his chest didn't allow him the comfort. "I just started training on proper combat with Alter and she's be wringing me out to dry in only two sessions." It was probably for the best that he leave out his incident of evisceration lest he cause some sort of drama. But something told him by the strike to his head that he messed up somewhere. "What was that for!?"
"You are to refer to Lady Alter by her title, young Kor. She is a woman of importance and power, thus deserves all the respect in the world." Phantasma scolded with a minor stare of disapproval. "To casually call her by her name alone is of massive disrespect."
"Strange, she doesn't seem to mind me calling her by just her name. In fact I think she prefers being treated casually as opposed to like a god." Seeing Phantasma raise her fist again made the teen scramble in his seat out of fear. "I-I mean sure! No problem, nothing but respect here!"
The purple haired woman lowered her fist and smiled back. "Glad we have reached an understanding."
'Are all Grimmborn women this terrifying?' The teen thought to himself.
"But it is something to note that Lady Alter has started training you personally." The woman noted while relaxing in her seat a bit. "She normally is locked up in the church all day praying but it seems your arrival has brought about some type of paradigm shift. She seems much… happier as of recent and that pleases us all."
"Was she normally so reclusive? From what I assumed Al-, ahem, I mean Lady Alter seems to be a social butterfly." Kor was glad he caught himself before Phantasma could give another pointed look. "She's so welcoming to me despite me being an outsider of the 'human world'."
"That is something to be curious of, but in the end we are not ones to question her will. Only Master Xavok holds such power yet those two are often on the same wavelength most of the time. My dear Kor, I truly believe their wish is to see you make this place your home. That despite the place of your birth, you are one of us through and through."
Phantasma's words were more troubling than comforting for the young boy. While it was true that Kor was getting used to the day by day life in Goetia, he hadn't exactly planned on making this a permanent stay. As nice as some of the Grimmborn were, they weren't the friends and partners he spent months on end making back at Beacon. Such a thought caused Kor to grimace as it was a bit unfair to compare the two in the same way. But he was already missing his friends quite a bit in his current stay. "I guess so…"
It wasn't too hard to tell that Kor was not in the best of moods right now. Deciding it was best to leave things as they were, the motherly Grimmborn merely patted him on the head softly and went about her business.
'How long am I gonna stay here, how long am I gonna be without my friends or even…' A deep sigh escaped his lips. Finding the energy to move once more, Kor slowly made his way back to his room.
'Sienna… I miss you so much…'
"Kor, I must speak with you."
Alter's voice tore the teen from his thoughts and made him turn around to see the woman looking at him with a serious expression. "Y-Yes Alter?" He mentally kicked himself for not adding 'Lady' to the name but thankfully the woman didn't seem to mind.
"Due to some coming circumstances, I will be unable to train you for about two days. But I shall intrust your safety and training to Xavok in the time being." She explained as her expression softened a bit. "Forgive me Kor, but I am needed elsewhere for a bit."
While Kor was a bit relieved to have his training time handled by someone who would, hopefully, be a bit easier to spar against. It did raise a few questions as well. "Why so suddenly after we just got started?"
Alter's eyebrow twitched suddenly, a sign that Kor may had overstepped a boundary. Making him step back a bit until he was with his back to the wall. Alter hovered over him and raised a hand over his head. He flinched when she brought it down but reopened his eyes once he felt was she was caressing his cheek.
"My, my, I didn't think you would become so clingy after we just started. Perhaps I should spoil you a bit more?" It delighted Alter to see Kor sputter about with a red face. Having a very close view of it also brought her much delight. "I merely jest, Kor. No need to become so bothered by the thought. Just await my return and try to get along with the others as I take care of something very important. Okay?"
After composing himself once more, Kor nodded his head and allowed Alter to be on her way. 'That… was scary. Striking fear with just a look. Alter is one hell of a woman.' He shook his head and walked back to his room, ready to take a good long rest after today's events. 'Hopefully I never piss her off the deep end.'
Salem considered herself a woman of many things. Patience, understanding, offering, and most of all charitable with her time. Normally if one were to stall about information needed for a plan to either succeed or to be made, it would wear away at her most gracious patience and call for something drastic. Often as a punishment for wasting her time on nothing.
But with Cinder, she had to stay her hand and offer more leniency than she normally would allow. After such time she finally stole the powers of Fall and have absorbed them into her body but her strange injuries put her in a precarious position. One of being a near mute with talking being horribly strenuous and emoting being just as hard. Not that Cinder was ever the paragon of conversation but it did hamper progress on her plans. So Salem decided it was long time for a one on one session between them.
She looked to her other men, Tyrian, Watts and Hazel and simply nodded her head at them. "Boys, I need to speak to Cinder alone. If you would all be so kind as to leave."
All three of the men offered their agreement and made their way out of the room. Cinder grit her teeth at the scorpion faunus Tyrian for sneering at her the way he did as he left. She loathed that man deeply with how he played teacher's pet to Salem, and how seemingly effective it was in getting into her good graces. Not that someone like herself would ever stoop that low. Once the door closed, the two woman met each others eyes in silence. It wasn't until Salem sighed that the conversation started.
"Cinder. It has been quite some time since the fall of Beacon and you've yet to detail the events of what transpired. Mercury could only tell me so much before he gets locked up in fear. So no more delays, I want the full story now."
"My… v-voice…" Cinder cracked out, her lungs burning with the effort she was putting in to talk.
Salem once again sighed and got off her throne. She sat next to her follower and placed a glowing black hand on her head. "Now, speak through your mind. Leave no detail out of the report."
"Yes my queen." Cinder was surprised at the clarity of her thoughts. Now that she could 'vocalize' herself, there was no way she could put this off any longer. "From what Mercury told me, he informed you up until our seperation to retrieve the maiden's power, correct?"
"Indeed. After that he just locks up."
"I had taken Emerald with me in order to disillusion Ozpin and sneak around him to kill the maiden. However the plan was compromised once one of those Grimmborn had come to intercept us."
Salem's brow raised slightly. She was more than familiar with the Grimmborn race and Cinder's plan to use them to her will. Being creatures of thought and reason, she could not control them as easily as their more monstrous kin. But to lose control of the situation because of one alone… "This Grimmborn, was it one of the ones you had taken control of with the flute? Why did you not restrain them?"
"My queen, the silver eyed brat interfered and destroyed the flute with her weapon. It was because of that I lost all control and the plan started to go awry. In my torment of their rebellion i hadn't taken notice of her arrival and lost the item."
"Very well, continue."
Cinder nodded. "The Grimmborn that stopped us trapped Emerald within the jaws of a serpent dragon that came from her back. She told us to either leave or die, so I ran down after Ozpin but Emerald was killed as a result." The sickening crunch of bone and flesh resurfaced in her memory, making the woman shiver slightly. "I ran as quickly as I could to kill the maiden before the beast could follow but my path was barred by Ozpin and two of his students. I destroyed the maiden's life support machine which could guarantee my having of her powers yet they still stood in my way. I would've incinerated them to ash if it wasn't for…'
Salem clacked her heels on the floor to grad Cinder's trailing attention. She would not be denied a proper explanation now. "Continue."
'R-Right… The same Grimmborn entered the room and interrupted the fight, telling me to move aside as she had business with Ozpin. I threatened to kill the Maiden in an attempt to make her leave but it only made the monster try to devour me. I broke free from the serpent that came from its back but that allowed the students and Ozpin to escape as we fought. … I was outmatched, she toyed with me and beat me down. I was going to die until Mercury managed to get us away from that blasted Alter. I swear next time I'll-' A raspy yelp came from Cinder's ragged throat when Salem grabbed her by the neck and pulled her in face to face. Her eyes burning with an unreadable flurry of emotions that never graced her face before. 'M-My Queen?'
"Did you just say Alter. Alter as in the Lady of the Grimmborn?" Cinder barely nodded meekly before her master threw her to the ground violently. This sudden shift in tone unnerved the faux maiden greatly. "You… You damned fool! You angered her of all people on this planet!?"
Cinder watched with fear as Salem began pacing around the room with a disdainful worried look on her face. "Alter, that woman- no, that beastial serpent has now become an issue... When did she awaken again, why did she not kill you!?" She stopped moving around and sat upon her throne with rubbing her temples.
Cinder stayed on the ground, hardly able to move after that outburst from Salem. Her heart froze over in fear once the ghastly skinned woman glared back at her. "Get up now. You are to begin mastering your powers effective immediately! You have caused me a great issue that I must now work around, so you will be the one to kill the problem you made."
'B-But my Queen-!'
"SILENCE!" Salem's below and slamming of her palms on the armrests of her throne snubbed any response. "By this time next month, you WILL have mastered your new powers and you WILL kill that abhorrent serpent Alter. Do I make myself clear?" Cinder bowed her head lowly to the ground, afraid to upset her any further. "Good. Now get out of my sight, you disgust me."
There was hardly any feeling in the red clad woman's body as she stumbled out as fast as she could. Never in the whole time of serving Salem had she ever seen her so angry. There was some sort of clear past relationship between her queen and the demon Alter, one that seemed confrontational and negative. This was all wrong in so many ways. If only that blasted Ruby hadn't destroyed the flute, she would still have her slaves and the White Fang wrapped around her finger. But with Alter not only being a threat but the terrorist organization now aligned with them, they were at a disadvantage in numbers.
Her run began to slow to a brisk walk, moving faster to escape the smug look of self satisfaction coming from Tyrian and Watts. She had to become stronger if she wished to gain Salem's favor again. Until then, she was as worthless as the day she was born.
'Never again.' Her thoughts burned as she kicked the door down to the grounds were they kept imprisoned Grimm. 'I will not go back to being nothing! Alter, you will die by my hands along with the rest of your mud born race! I swear it!'
Weiss burst into her room with tears spilling down her cheeks, slamming the door behind her in a spiteful sadness before throwing herself to her bedside. Tears of sorrow, rage, isolation and disbelief. Everything she had worked so hard to achieve in life, following in the steps of her older sister all taken away in an instant. A cruel father, a scheming brother, an apathetic mother, was this that she had left now?
No, that was not how Weiss Schnee lived her life. She clenched her fists in resolve and moved to close the curtains to her window. Her father's words would not keep her bound here, there was something brewing with all the tension and talk of conflict with other kingdoms. Especially with the prospect of Zelia coming in to make a mess of her family. Loathsome as two of them were, she would not allow them to be mercilessly slaughtered at the hands of a murderer. She reached under her bed and pulled out a steel suitcase. Sighing slightly, the former heiress opened up the case to find that her rapier Myrtenaster along with various vials of Dust was still there. She picked up her weapon and quickly inserted the vials into the slots of her revolver chamber. Even after all this time being forced to play puppet for her father, she was glad to hear the clicking of the chamber locking into place with a crisp snap.
But as glad as she was to see and hold her rapier once more, she knew that she couldn't get out of here herself. Luckily for her, she had at least one person in the whole staff here that was on her side. She grabbed her scroll off her nightstand and dialed one of her quick contacts. The wait only lasted one ring before the person on the other end picked up.
"Madam Weiss, do you need anything?"
"Klein, come to my room quickly. I have need of your assistance."
It only took two minutes for the dutiful butler to be at the door to Weiss's room. Within another few minutes he was briefed in on the plan. She had to go to Mistral and inform Winter of the danger that was Zelia and have her come back home. With the fall of the CCT a few months prior when Beacon fell, it was hard to call people from other kingdoms due to the distance. But if she could just find the Atlas military base in Mistral then she could have a chance of convincing her. Whitley's rise in the ladder of the family might also prove extra incentive for her to return.
Having set any noisy device on silent, the two moved quickly to the library. Once arriving, Klein tapped on a certain area on a bookshelf near the back left corner of the room. A soft clicking sound echoed in the quiet library as the self moved to reveal a hidden passage. The butler to the young girl looked to her and gave a sad smile to her.
"Are you sure that Mistral is safe?"
Weiss shook her head. She was no fool, there were a myriad of issues waiting for her once she stepped foot in the kingdom. But it had to be done now or never. "No, but it's where Winter is."
The man's eyes changed color to be a soft brown. A soft sigh came from him. "I suppose she'll be the only true family after tonight."
"That's not true. I have Winter, Uncle Jack and you."
The man smile, while sad, brightened up considerably at hearing those words come from the young lady. "You most certainly do have us."
Weiss gave the man who had been serving her family for as long as she'd known a quick hug. To which he graciously returned in earnest. They separated quickly once they heard a loud banging at the closed door to the library.
"Klein!? Where are you? Get over here this instant!"
"Go and good luck Madam Schnee." He said quietly while slightly moving her to the staircase behind the shelf.
"Thank you and goodbye, Klein."
The butler nodded his head and softly shut the door. With a heavy sigh, Weiss started down the stairs with suitcase in hand. She had quite the ways to go to find the pilot that Klein contacted to get out of Atlas in his cargo hold. But with her semblance and speed it was hardly an issue. She reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around her, nothing but an empty barely lit hall that, if what Klein said, would lead to the gardener's shed in the back corner of the Schnee estate. Her footsteps echoed down the long hall as she sprinted down, nearing the staircase to the shed upwards. But her footing became loose when the hallway suddenly lit up with fire tracing the walls around her.
"Well, well. Look at what we have here. A coward trying to run and leave her family for dead."
'... No… No, it can't be! Not now!' Weiss got onto her feet quick enough to dodge a fireball being lobbed at her. She rolled along the floor and swiftly opened the suitcase that held her weapon. She grabbed it quickly and threw the case to the side as the Grimmborn Zelia came into her view. "You demon, how did you get here!?"
Zelia snickered a bit before revealing something, or rather someone she was hiding behind her back. A scared employee who was battered and beaten frantically stared at the young Schnee with a begging look. "It's amazing how easily humans can fold and break if you apply enough pressure to them. Just a teensy amount of pain and they spill their guts. Both metaphorically…"
Weiss felt a rush of bile jump to her mouth at seeing the monster girl throw the poor man to the ground and stomp his head into a bloody mess. "NO!"
"Hmhmhmhmhm… And VERY literally."
"You… You're gonna pay for that! I'll make sure that you rot in the darkest hellhole I can personally find for you!" Weiss stanced her rapier forward, glaring with a look that could kill a hundred times over. "You'll never hurt another person ever again!"
"Ha! Now that's a laugh." The heat emanating from Zelia's horns was so palpable that Weiss could see steam wafting out of them. "Come on then, brat! I'll start the slaughter with you!"
The years of training by Winter simply fell out the window at the Grimmborn's actions and words. Never was there a person who infuriated her to such a degree that she fell into a berserker-like rage. Her first thrust was towards Zelia's head to shut her up once and for all. The fire girl moved her head sideways to avoid the blow and knocked her horns against the rapier in a parry. Weiss let to let go of her weapon to dodge a fire veiled fist that was aimed at her face and backed up to get some distance.
The weapon clattering to the ground, Zelia took this chance to move in on the unarmed girl. Weiss clicked her tongue at her approach and activated a speed enhancing glyph in response. She used her amped speed to roll under a burning kick to the face and picked up the fallen weapon. Turning around, Weiss swiped her rapier to block another punch meant for the head. Zelia began a vicious assault of flying fists and kicks forcing her hated enemy to move back to stay on the defensive. Blow after blow was blocked by a swift strike to match Zelia's strength.
'She's gotten stronger since we fought her last. That strength is overwhelming.' Weiss thought in between strikes. 'I may not have the others to back me up, but I don't need them to take her down. Fire against fire is useless here so maybe a bit of water will help out.' She knew that there was no outmatching Zelia in raw strength. She wasn't Yang by any means but there was an advantage she did have.
Weiss backflipped away from a savage leaping punch from Zelia, making sure that the heels of her shoes whacked into the demon's chin for good measure. Waving her Myrtenaster around summoned three glyphs over her head that shot out arrows of ice at the vulnerable Grimmborn. Zelia growled as the pot shots nicked her around the face and shoulders. She erupted a burst of heat that melted away the incoming shots and moved again to butcher Weiss in her tracks.
'She took the bait. Grimmborn meathead won't know what hit her.' Trickery was very much discouraged by Winter when they were training but Winter wasn't around to scold her for it. She didn't need to know about this in the end if Zelia ended up imprisoned for life.
Gracefully jumping from each tile breaking attack Weiss further goaded Zelia into her rage by dashing past her and slicing her in the left arm while cutting the fabric of the bomber jacket. Not letting that transgression slide, Zelia moved fast to grab her target by her long ponytail and roughly yanked her back. The Schnee gasped in pain from the pull but felt even more pain when a bone breaking punch rocked her in the face. Her aura nearly shattered with the force of the punch. Weiss was sent rolling near the staircase where she was headed, her weapon clattering to the ground before her.
"I'm done with you. You're gonna die here and now!" Zelia held her hands close together and focused her fire power into them. A ball of fire formed in between her palms that kept growing in size until it reached the size of a watermelon. She held her hands up high above her head and smiled wickedly at Weiss. "BURN TO CINDERS!"
Zelia lowered her arms and pushed them forward while opening her palms. A huge torrent of fire burst from the large fireball and blasted to Weiss. The silver haired girl gasped as the flames came rushing to her.
The Grimmborn didn't let up her flames in the slightest. She wanted to make sure that brat was burnt into nothing but dust in the wind. The stream continued until the flames pattered out from her exhaustion. The smoke rose up into the staircase looking for a way and and hopefully giving Zelia the showing of a charred corpse to laugh at. But the smile on her face was wiped off seeing a glowing glyph through the smoke. A guttural growl of fury erupted inside the Grimmborn's throat at seeing Weiss on her knees with her weapon planted into the ground, forming some sort of barrier that guarded her from the flames.
Weiss slowly got up and allowed the glyph to fade away. "Don't even think killing me will be that easy. I'm not the same when we fought last time."
"Oh? So you changed from being the same selfish brat you always were? Did the fall of your precious school ignite that change?"
"Did that bolt of lightning you took knock even more screws loose or did they fry what little brain cells you had lef-." The force from Zelia's speedy dashing punch against the pommel of her rapier buckled the human girl down.
"Don't even go there or else I'll set this whole kingdom on fire." She warned with a low voice that promised her threat wasn't just fluff.
Weiss dug her feet into the ground under the heating pressure of Zelia's fist. She knew it was now or never. The horned girl gasped hard and grabbed her side in pain, feeling a shard of ice pierce her. Making the glyph she secretly made disappear, Weiss pushed her enemy off balance and knocked her flat of her back with a point blank thrust. Zelia skid along the floor a few feet until a sudden rising of ice hit her upwards. Jumping after her, she thrust Myrtenaster into the monster's stomach which spiked her to the ground. The Grimmborn ricocheted off the stone floor from the impact which gave the landing Weiss the opportunity she needed. Activating a speed glyph, she ran forward and slashed through Zelia's side. In midair she made another glyph to bounce off of to slash her again. Bouncing to and fro she battered the helpless foe with numerous slashes until she landed on the ground for one final thrust against her left horn. The impact blasted Zelia right into the wall near the staircase where Weiss came from.
The former heiress took great satisfaction in seeing Zelia struggle to get up from the floor. "Not so tough when you don't have an aura to protect you, are you? I'll never let a soulless monster like you hurt anyone if I can help it."
"You…" Weiss stanced her rapier for another round as Zelia got up from the ground holding the horn that was hit. "How dare… You broke my horn, you bitch!" When the Grimmborn lowered her hand, Weiss snorted to herself seeing the broken horn. Jagged and shattered halfway from the top making the equilibrium of Zelia's face look now lopsided and weird. "You think this is funny!?" Her rage nearly boiled over into an explosion but sparing a glance at the staircase next to her made fire wielding girl smile devilishly. "Well let's see how much you're laughing when I burn your family to the ground!"
Weiss lost her footing and fell down when Zelia quickly aimed a blast of fire down of her feet. She cursed loudly as she fell, watching the Grimmborn run up the stairs that led to the main estate. "I won't let you!"
The explosion rocked the foundation of the library sending books flying out in every direction. The hidden passageway being knocked off its hinges as Zelia, covered in flames ran out the first door she saw. Blasting down the door she ran down the hall to the right looking for anyone to kill in order to subside her rage.
Weiss ran out after the Grimmborn, seeing her run down the hall that lead to her father's study. If Klein had done his job right, he should be far away from the study at this moment and probably alerting authorities from the explosion. She had to get the fire breather back into a one on one if she wanted to mitigate the incoming damage. She saw Zelia turn the corner past the study, completing missing the chance to search it. But that was exactly what she was hoping for. That the blood rage brute would be so blind in her search for people to kill.
She quickly summoned a glyph to follow her as she ran down the after Zelia. Once her running form was in sight, she shot an ice shard right at her head. The projectile flew by Zelia's face, grazing her cheek with a small slash which gave Weiss the reaction she was looking for. "Over here, demon! Or are you so weak that you can't actually finish the job?"
Smoke billowing from her horns, the Grimmborn charged like a bull down the hall after her. Weiss took the distance between them to jump into her father's study and planted ignition glyphs as an ambush. With this set up and a precise strike she could knock out the monster before she could do anymore harm and slip out before anyone noticed. She began moving around furniture to the door as a barricade that would signal her attack once she broke through it. But in moving the table in the center of the room, her foot sunk down slightly causing her to trip. She looked down to see a small depression under the rug. Quickly seeing what this was about she stepped on it again causing a loud noise to churn and open up a hidden passage behind her.
'What the-?' Any further thoughts were curbed to a halt when a loud banging at the door shook her out of it. In the heat of the moment Weiss descended down the staircase of the hidden passageway. In the back of her head she was yelling at herself that it was a bad idea but she had very little to lose at this point.
Once she hit the last step a hallway of lights came on to reveal a metal plated room with various scientific equipment about the area. There were five different doors that led into rooms with a glass looking window to where they were connected to. But seeing what was inside those rooms made Weiss want to vomit.
Human shapes covered in a black sludge, convulsing and contorting into bizarre and unnatural shapes. Their bodies destroying themselves before reforming again as they took steps towards the doors once they noticed the light was on. Weiss fell on her rear end in seeing these monsters run and started banging on the glass window of the door. Their moaning and screaming filling her ears in a cacophony.
"Help me!"
"Please!"
"Stop it! Stop it!"
"Kill us!"
These mutants cried and screamed out to her, begging for death as their bodies tore apart and repaired themselves. Her mind fell into a blank catatonic state that was only broken once the sound of an explosion and vicious stomping was heard coming down the metal stairs. She scrambled to pick herself up along with her weapon just as Zelia entered the room.
"You thought you could play drive by with me!? That little potshot is gonna cost you your life!" The horns, despite one of them being broken, started to glow a burning hot white as heat waves began to emanate from them. A light fog also softly billowed out the broken end of the horn like a steam whistle. "Now get ready, because no doctor alive will be able to recognize your charred corpse after I'm-." The knocking of the monsters in the other rooms suddenly increased along with their screams once they caught sight of Zelia. "... -done…?"
The sordid cries of the amalgamates shook the Grimmborn into silence with her horns slowly cooling down. Just as Weiss was before, Zelia couldn't form the words to continue and looked on in horror of the visage. Her head slowly turned back to the former heiress with an indefinable expression on her face. "What… is thi- What is this!?"
"I-I don't know! I'm just as shocked as you!"
Not caring for her words Zelia ran up to one of the windows that the creature was clawing at and smashed the window. A loud alarm immediately went off but she couldn't care less as her flaming fists began to choke the monster in front of her until she put more pressure into the grip and snapped her hands forward to break its neck. The monster went limp as it fell to the ground motionless yet not fading away as its Grimm-like appearance would have one believe. Upon seeing the body remain even after death, Zelia stepped back in horror until she tripped and fell on her rear.
"You… You monsters… You demons…! What have you done!? DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOD!?"
Weiss jumped at the sudden scream from her nemesis and stanced her weapon once more. "What are you talking about!? I have no idea what these things are! I found this lab under my father's study!"
"This… This is an abomination! That thing. That monster wasn't human. It wasn't Grimmborn. It was some sick combination between the two. It was… It was…-!?" Zelia turned around on all fours as a huge wave of bile threw itself out of her throat. Her stomach convulsing as she emptied her gut upon the horrid realization. "... Ha… Ha… Ha… … Your family did this… You sinners!"
"Sinners!? How!?"
"Do our lives mean so little to you beasts that creating puppets to be your slaves wouldn't affront us!? No… No… She has to know about this."
She? "Wha-?"
"SHUT UP! I'm… I'm gonna tell her all about this! These monsters, these man made Grimmborn! These puppets that shouldn't have life!" Zelia got off the floor and started backing away to the staircase. "Lady Alter… I'll tell her all about this and she'll tear this whole kingdom down and burn it to ashes!"
Weiss ducked to the ground when Zelia let out one huge wave of fire that blasted through the windows. She looked up to see the Grimmborn making her escape and that the monster hybrids were currently being burned alive. Seeing the flames begin to spread Weiss quickly casted a glyph of ice that extinguished the flames on the surrounding area yet left the other living beings untouched. She stared at them with an ounce of pity in seeing them twist and turn in agony before the flames overtook them.
She bolted out of her father's study just in time to see Zelia break through a nearby window and jump out of it. Running up to the window, she could barely make out the vision of her riding on something or someone gigantic off into the darkness of the night. She was already too far ahead to give chase but the shouting coming from the right side of the room told Weiss she had to book it. Going back to the library, she slipped by the police force and firefighters that started to storm the place and began her original trek to get to the pilot's whereabouts.
As she ran, the unsettling thoughts and implications of the lab and its horrid creatures under her father's study kept rearing up. Zelia's claims of her father playing God was something she wanted to deny. That no matter how cold of a person he was, he wouldn't resort to human experimentation as a sort of guard dog squad. She wanted to but she had no way to confirm or deny it. But even as she made it to her location and apologized for her lateness, there was one thought lingering in her head.
'Just who is this Lady Alter?'
Life of a Grimmborn Chapter 27: Condensation -End-
A/N: Well things certainly have progressed haven't they? Alter's on the move, Salem and Cinder are now involved and Zelia and Weiss have discovered quite the dark secret. With this new knowledge, Weiss is going to have some heavy thoughts moving forward. So I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next. Drop a review if you liked it or have something to say. I'm always down for listening to the readers. Have a good one all!
