Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all doing fine, all things considered.
Chapter 93 is here and as always I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks a lot once more for your continuous support of the series (yes, I count as support even just taking the time to read it). You are all the best!
See you next week in chapter 94. Until then, be well and have fun!
"So let me get it straight" showered in green light and accompanied by the growls of newly-born horrors, Yang addressed the fox-girl "we are alive because of this barrier thing you made after we collapsed?"
Green irises slightly narrowed in confirmation "it's a spell my ancestors created to observe and understand Grimm better; not only it blocks any sound from leaking out, it also soothes your emotions and repels any interference from those who bear the blood of the God of Darkness."
"I see…" Blake, unable to avert her gaze from the disgusting scene that was playing out in front of them, replied "this is why despite my whole body telling me to scream, I am barely trebling at the moment."
"Precisely" Cherry replied "we wouldn't have survived its gaze if not for it, trust me. And the only reason it works even on an Elder is Salem's binding magic still affecting it, even not completely."
"Guess we owe you once again, huh?" the blonde gave her a reserved smile, clearly uncertain how to act towards the cherry-haired woman.
"Think nothing of it, if you may" she replied. "Saving myself aside, you both came here to help me; what sort of ungrateful waste of breathing air would I be if I let you die to the Grimm after that?"
Both huntresses exchanged a confused, albeit reluctantly relieved stare and then Blake knelt next to her fellow faunus. Yang took off her jacket and offered it to the half-naked girl who accepted it with a smile.
"I have a ton of different questions for you, but first of all; are we safe here and for how long?" the yellow-eyed huntress said after Cherry put on and buttoned up Yang's jacket to cover her torso.
"The barrier is safe, but immobile. As for how long it will last, well…" she shook her shoulders and exhaled "I can ensure we will starve to death long before the barrier's magic fades away."
Both girls' eyes opened wide "yeah, that is not an option, girl" Yang shot her down "we have to get out of here, save Ruby and Weiss from that mad bastard Azure and leave this place as fast as possible."
Blake stared at their back, where the Grimm held their horrifying and absurd ceremony in front of their Elder "I hate to be that person, Yang, but I think the ones who need help at the moment are us, not them."
"I second that Ms. Xiao Long." "Oh come on, it's Yang. I'm younger than you so skip the formality." Cherry nodded "Ok, Yang" she said this a tad less emotionlessly than her usual voice.
"I was captured due to carelessness but I can't possibly imagine Azure or his guards defeating Ms. Rose and Ms. Schnee even if they went all out" the cherry-colored girl told them "so I wouldn't worry about that."
His experimental subjects were a different story of course, but she was determined to not disclose any information to team RWBY they could later use against the council and the Elders. After all, Rose and Schnee were living legends; they should be fine even against them.
On the other side, Yang and Blake decided to not inform Cherry about the zombies they had met in the room behind. She had helped them, yes, but it was unclear at this point on whose side her loyalties stood.
"Irrelevant" then, Yang replied with a single word. Cherry blinked and Blake smiled knowingly at her partner "what you say is true but to be honest, I don't give a damn, girl" she exclaimed, confusing the faunus.
"I don't want to help Weiss and Ruby because they need help" the wet sounds of Grimm Blood getting splattered informed them that another spawn had been born from the disgusting, vile womb.
"I want to help them because I love them with all my might; don't try and apply logic on me- it won't work. If you have enough time to think why I shouldn't worry, I suggest you use it to think an escape plan."
"I am sor-" a huge pulse of energy resonated through the room all of a sudden. The Grimm horde turned around, eyes looking in confusion and noses sniffing the air, as if picking up a scent they had missed so far.
The Hag- this is how they had decided to call the Grand Mother's spawn that wielded the bone staff and resembled a fusion of a large demonic toad with a one-eyed human- took a few steps ahead.
All three girls shivered and held their breaths. The towering, faceless horned head of the Grand Mother moved. Slowly, ignoring its impaled flesh being ripped, it tilted over the Hag- towards their direction.
Yang, Blake and Cherry picked up their weapons. The lack of face didn't even come close to make this thing less threatening; quite the opposite actually. They were unable to comprehend whether it had felt them or not and that made the situation quite nerve-wracking.
They had forgotten everything but their instincts of survival. The barrier still stood, but the sheer proximity of the massive head over their own was making their minds heavy and their heads throb in pain.
Another pulse passed through the room and this time it was followed by a burst of air. It swindled their hair and clothes and blew the cape of the Hag away, messing the filthy parodies of hair on top of her head.
The air was cold, murky and faintly smelled of rotten eggs- the exact kind of air one would smell from a murky lake. It was disgusting, but gave them a much needed chance as Grand Mother retracted her head.
The Hag opened her horrendous, needle-filled mouth and let out a wicked shriek that tore the girls' ears, making them hug each other in order to keep standing, despite the barrier's protection.
Grand Mother twisted, pulsed and flailed. Suspended and impaled by its bindings, the movement resembled a disgusting marionette that was forced to perform while being pulled apart- Blake averted her gaze.
And then, all of a sudden, the Gargoyles melded in the stone floor and left. The Spectators- Cherry had told them this was how the one-eyed floating heads were called- rushed out of the room as well.
Last but not least was the Hag. She made a really slow exit, her thuds and heavy breathing accompanied by her monstrous steps as another pulse of lake air filled the room before she faded away from view.
Leaving team Bumblebee and Cherry alone with the restrained Grand Mother. Yang blinked twice, happy that the barrier's protective aura had returned, and stared at the other two girls in confusion.
"What the heck just happened?" And then, before anyone could reply to her, they all heard another sound. It was not ear-piercing or mind-wracking, but it was equally terrifying as the previous one, if not more.
The reason for their terror was this; the sound was the cracking of iron chains.
-o—
A couple hours ago
The metal door was easy enough to open with a glyph. Weiss and Ruby exchanged stares. "Stay close to us so we can protect you within a moment's notice" the pale girl instructed Martina who silently nodded.
Ruby raised Crescent Rose and used its blade to push the door open, at once jumping back as a malicious green light shone on her silver blade from the opening.
She stared Weiss again and saw her partner narrow her eyes. They had both seen the wicked light more times they were comfortable with. It took them a couple second to brace themselves before rushing in.
Ruby kicked open the door and Weiss followed behind her, Martina just a couple steps away from the Schnee. The student held the lamp in her hand, shedding light inside the half-lit room.
Said room was in bad shape. There were glasses and pieces of broken machinery-mostly computers and monitor devices. In the middle of it, the broken remains of a glass jar- no, a glass incubator- were scattered and eldritch green liquid oozed on the floor, adding to the lamp's light.
Greenish fog covered the room; too thin to obscure vision, but not thin enough to pass unnoticed. On the chairs in front of the now destroyed machinery, numerous people in lab coats could be seen sleeping.
Ruby and Weiss' eyes opened wide. The wounds on their figures, the bloodstains on their clothes… the pools of red, thick liquid forming beneath their still dripping bodies…
"Those people were killed; and quite recently so" the brunette told her companions "don't get close to them until we make sure they are not going to get up" Weiss replied and took one step closer to Martina.
"And how exactly do we do that?" Ruby gulped. Her flashlight, currently attached to her rifle, outlined the closest body while she aimed at it, hoping with all her might she wouldn't have to pull the trigger.
"You could always… poke them from a distance, I guess?" the hesitation in her partner's voice was evident. But that was not enough to make the brunette ignore the ridiculous plan she had just proposed to her.
"Weiss!" she suppressed her voice instead of raising it "I am not going to poke around dead bodies with my baby till they move!" Ruby firmly protested. "Do you have any better alternative then?" Weiss replied.
"You are the tech guy- girl- of the team. Search around for clues while I am guarding you two. If anything moves, then I will shoot it. Not before, but after it moves. Are we fine with that?"
Weiss sighed and returned Myrtnenaster to its hilt, holding Crown with her left hand "Martina, raise your lamp" Ruby retreated next to them.
The student complied and raised her arm as high as possible, providing them with better illumination. The pale girl took a few careful steps to their right, towards the oozing green liquid stuff of nightmares.
Honestly, she agreed with Ruby. Even if poking the corpses was a much more efficient way in her opinion, doing so would leave a bad taste in her mouth.
She swapped her silky white gloves for latex ones and picked out a small vial from her pouch. The goo shimmered as Ruby aimed at it, her light causing it to change color from shining green to red, then purple, blue, indigo, then yellow and black before returning back to green.
Mismatched cyan eyes narrowed, waiting for the strange substance to show any additional activity, but nothing happened. The former Tech Department member of SHU knelt in front of it, holding her breath.
Carefully, Weiss' gloved fingers touched the oozing substance. It was warmer than she had expected it to. The texture was slimy and sticky, reminding her of B-rated horror movie monster blood.
She turned around to see Ruby, who was still covering her back with Cr. Rose. "It's like green, odorless blood" she finally told her while filling two vials with the green substance.
The other two girls slowly walked next to her "it's oozing out from a broken vat, so you may be up to something here" the brunette said.
Weiss sighed, but nodded in agreement. "Something was inside the vat and got taken away, quite forcibly. As to what and why, we can only guess the worst, am I right, Weissy?" The pale girl nodded again.
She knew this was Ruby's horror fan speaking and she hated that the reaper might had been right despite of that- the substance originated from the vat, there was no doubt about it.
"So, they got attacked by the Grimm?" Martina asked sheepishly. "I don't think so" Ruby pointed with her light at a few corpses "they are all full of bullet holes from medium-caliber rifles."
"In other words, they were executed" Weiss stood up "the question is why." "I may be just guessing" the three of them moved next to the PC and monitor debris- they were full of bullet holes and baton smashes.
"But I think Azure destroyed the lab and killed all of his staff in order to prevent us from finding anything" she picked up a bullet from the floor and showed it to the girls.
"These are military-grade bullets used by Vale Huntsmen" she told her partner "and we still haven't found the rescue team's weapons." She kept moving her light along the corpses, ready to intercept any attack.
"So, now we know" Weiss nodded sadly "he used Vivian to capture the students and the rescue team and killed them all after he used them for experiments, Martina being the sole survivor. Then, he took out anyone who had knowledge of the place before destroying his equipment."
The petite huntress stared at Martina who lowered her gaze and trembled. Ruby gently squeezed her shoulder to ease her nerves. "That inhuman, psychotic bastard…" Weiss spat "is he completely mad?"
"How terribly short-sided for someone of your intellect, Ms. Schnee" the voice came abruptly from their left side, making all three girls turn towards it, the huntresses having weapons ready to attack.
The sound had come from the direction of the main monitor. In front of it, lit by the combined lights of the two girls, sat the corpse of a blonde man. It had a large hole on the base of its skull and a trail of caked dark red blood ran down its back, dying its lab coat a vivid crimson.
Martina stifled a gasp and Ruby cocked her rifle as the body started moving. Weiss made a grimace of disgust as it turned around, staring at them with empty, white lifeless eyes and a bloody, swollen mouth.
"When you fail to understand someone, you are so quick to call them 'mad', 'insane' or other, more elaborate names" the voice came from it, yet they could clearly see that neither its throat not its lips moved at all.
"I assume this is what you called Dr. Merlot as well, didn't you?" Both huntresses shared a quick gaze and then Ruby replied "if you are Azure, and I am sure you are him, you should know what Merlot truly was."
The corpse stood up with mechanical, disoriented movements. The student whimpered. Weiss winked at her "it's going to be all right. We are not going to let him do anything to you, trust me."
"A genius" the voice replied. "A man whose greatness shone brightly for all who respected him" it tilted its head with a horrifying sound "a man who inspired me to be who I am" it opened its lips, blood pouring-
Ruby closed her eyes and blew off its head. A sound like glass breaking followed her gunshot and the corpse collapsed on the ground. "What is with you people?!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the rubble.
"First Alizar, then Cherry, Peros, Wenge, you!" she screamed with all her might, but was sure he could hear her no matter what. Still, she had suppressed her feelings for too long and didn't care to stop for his sake.
"You follow, no, worship bloodthirsty maniacs who would see the world burn just to satisfy their own ego! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU PEOPLE? HOW TWISTED CAN YOU BE TO SPEAK OF THEM LIKE THAT?"
"Ruby…" Weiss stared at her partner. Another body stood up- that of a young brunette woman with a bullet in her forehead and half her jaw missing "as expected, you can't understand his greatness, Ruby Rose."
"Greatness…" Ruby glared at the corpse. "The ascension of humanity to an area no one had dared explore so far- the exploitation of Grimm and ways to make them succumb to us. What could this be called if not for greatness?" he wondered rhetorically.
"What are you even talking about?" this time it was Weiss's voice that rose "you are working with a cult that tries to awaken those things! Do you even understand the magnitude of what you are doing?"
"Do you even understand the magnitude of data I am collecting? Do you know how many years ahead Merlot and I were able to go because of the cult's knowledge?"
Both girls glared at him- they could barely contain their anger. "You just can't understand, can you? You are so full of yourselves, trying to play the folk tales' heroes that you can't consider brighter options."
"YOU-" a ruffle sounded from behind them and Ruby shot down a body that had tried to move too close to comfort. "And that is what I will do; I will honor my teacher's path, by taking it into even greater heights!"
A couple more heads stood up from their deathbed and stared at the huntresses with pale, lifeless eyes. "If only you had the proper mind to understand when you met him during your Beacon days" he whispered.
"But I don't resent you for that. You were neither smart enough to pave the road to greatness yourselves nor brave enough to follow it when Merlot exposed it to you." Few more heads twisted to look at them.
"Brave?" Weiss scoffed. "You have a lot of nerve to speak of bravery, talking to us from the shadows, using your dead colleagues as…" she paused for a moment "what are even those things?"
"Call them whatever you want" he replied. "You are using magic, aren't you" Weiss asked again "I felt something break at some point when we hit them. You are using the same accursed magic Cherry does."
"Hahahaa… magic you say?" she could imagine the man watching them from a secret camera, laughing at them… it made Weiss' blood boil and, from the looks of it, Ruby was even angrier right now.
"Corpse Dance; the ability to make dead bodies move and act the same way they did in life, but under my total command and obedience; that is my semblance. I am no magician; the only charm I ever utilized was illusion spells to trick the staff into thinking the others are alive."
Ruby felt her hair stand on edge in horror. "Your semblance… the very manifestation of your soul… is CONTROLLING DEAD BODIES?" her wide-eyed expression betrayed her shock and matched the one Weiss had.
"Why do you sound so displeased?" he asked back. "You are right" she replied, trying to sneak glances around the room in order to make sure whether Azure was inside or not "you don't even respect the living" she stared at Martina "why would you ever respect the dead?"
"Don't help him stall for time, Ruby" the blue-eyed girl cut her off "he is just toying with us" her eyes narrowed at the corpses around them "I guess he is not even inside this room to begin with, am I right?"
"Excellent deduction Ms. Schnee. I pity that we are not in this together; you would have made a wonderful replacement for Sophia Carmel or as a direct subordinate of mine- I could show you things about your very own semblance you can't even imagine would be possible."
The petite huntress didn't bulge "if you are so bright, why not join us- if you can control Grimm, you should help our side and show everyone what you and Merlot truly can do, not fight us for a stranger's cause!"
Weiss' words made Ruby turn and stare at her. The pale girl winked in a serious manner at her partner "why don't you show everyone exactly what you told us; how high you can ascend human intellect, not as one who will destroy humanity but as one who will save it instead" she said.
"That…" Ruby and Martina held their voices "is a tempting offer." Weiss smiled at the positive response. If they could just convince him to help, then they could get invaluable information on how to fight the-
A loud, slithering sound filled the room, coming from the ceiling. "You gave me a fascinating idea, Ms. Schnee. Maybe, after I send Vale your dismembered corpses, they would be willing to listen to my terms."
"What?" she blurted. The slithering sound continued. Ruby scanned the area, her rifle moving in extraordinary speeds to cover as much of their perimeter as possible. Where was it coming from?
"You are a scientist yourself, albeit in an amateurish level" the sound intensified, now coming from behind the broken monitors on their left.
"You do know that experiments are essential when one tries to validate their theories, don't you?" a loud, cacophonous sound reached them as the destroyed pieces of metal were pushed aside with immense might.
From the opening between, a mass of bubbling black flesh crawled out. It had a liquid texture that seemed like pouring forth instead of moving, forming a mass of tentacle-like appendages. They felt sick merely by looking at it.
Across its surface, they could see a myriad of red eyes that formed and deformed with every blink of their own ones. There were no body parts except for the bubbling and pouring tentacles.
"Let me introduce you dear ladies" one by one, the dead bodies fell on the floor, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass "to experiment 009; the first artificially created Eldergrimm Spawn."