Chapter 30- Cherry tries to kill Alizar, but is convinced at the very last moment that he meant no harm to her. They decide to have the girl focus on preparing the ritual and he will try to capture Ruby.
Slightly remembering of her deceased sister, Weiss discusses with Blake about an energy barrier around Red Manor. RWBY reaches the outpost and then collapses to rest inside.
A few hours later, Weiss shows Ruby Alizar's diary she picked from the Lighthouse. It describes an underground tunnel system they can use to enter the Manor, bypassing the barrier.
Chapter 31- The team enters the tunnels and faces horrendous smells and putrid mists causing them all sorts of hallucinations and nausea as they move further in.
The worst part however is when they realize the connection the tunnels have to the sea. Even after sealing the path behind, they are forced to leave it when something breaks their barricade and causes the passage to flood. They barely manage to reach Red Manor's burial ground alive.
Chapter 32- The team investigates the burial ground and the facilities around Red Mansion. They find piled corpses and bullet marks proving that a professional assault was launched at the island on its last day.
While they search around in high tension, they are quickly surrounded by the tide and the horrible, humanoid-like shapes it brought with it. In their relief, the shapes prove unable to cross the barrier and fade away, giving RWBy enough time to move towards the manor.
Chapter 33- They enter the mansion, finding more signs of combat. The team splits, with Blake and Yang walking to the top floor where they find a barricade with Grimm-eaten corpses of the assailants along with those of the executed villagers.
There, the two women discover a trapped crypt full of fire dust lots of books related to advance Grimm studies and a talisman like the one Cherry wore. They decide to take with them as many items as possible.
Chapter 34- Ruby and Weiss find a room used as forge. As they search around, Ruby suddenly loses her connection to reality and is absorbed into an illusion where her mind lives important parts of Cinder's life.
She sees Cinder-Elia and Alizar find Octavios and Bistre after they ran across the burning island, deep inside the mines. Octavios stays behind to finish a ritual and has them leave away with Bistre. On the boat to safety, Elia swears her loyalty to the man's cause and her revenge.
Chapter 35- Yang and Blake find traces of their friends being kidnapped. They manage to open a hidden passage and descend into the mines.
Meanwhile Alizar has Ruby chained. Full of anger, he tells her how his father discovered Avyssos the Eldergrimm's tomb and how this made Lionheart order his execution on Salem's orders.
Ruby defies the boy's words making him lose his mind and beat her up, as he explains he used magic to inflict her with nightmares and how he intends to sacrifice Jaune and Weiss to Avyssos in front of her eyes.
Chapter 36- Weiss wakes up in a pit full of offerings. She quickly sees the horrifying form of sealed Avyssos and is assaulted by a spawn of it that has completely copied Winter's form and abilities.
Taking advantage of her surprise and anger, it severely damages her left eye, before her anger burst out and causes her to retaliate. At the same time, the Bumblebee duo engages Cherry on an underground bridge.
Chapter 37- RWBY fights desperately for their lives in three fronts. Yang and Blake face off Cherry, mustering all their power to keep up with her immense strength and field advantage.
Weiss faces off her sister's clone, while she learns of the existence of an ancient civilization in the island that worshipped Avyssos and offered it human sacrifices- to the Eldergrimm's sinister amusement.
Ruby takes advantage of Alizar's blind outrage and frees herself, hoping she will be able to stop him and save everyone's life before it's too late.
Chapter 38- The Bumblebee duo overpowers Cherry. The girl accepts her defeat and informs them of Alizar's plan to sacrifice them all to the Eldergrimm, causing them to run deeper, leaving her to escape.
At the same time, Weiss manages to defeat Grimm Winter, while she is being mentally assaulted by Avyssos. After she finds some dust among the offerings, she decides to use it in order to stop its awakening ritual.
Chapter 39- After a bloody battle, Ruby manages to secure Jaune and defeat Alizar. She is reunited with Weiss, equally beat up as her.
Blake and Yang soon join them. They carry Jaune back to the mansion where they encounter a huge number of the same figures they had seen in the flooded tunnels- humanoid, fish-faced aquatic Grimm.
They make their escape through the monster horde until Blake finds a safe zone- the graveyard they had passed by earlier. Scared, tired and out of options, they spend the night there, surrounded yet safe.
Chapter 40- Being repeatedly tortured by Emerald's ability, Jaune's mind gets in contact with Avyssos. The desperate man agrees to owe a favor to the ancient monster, in exchange for it waking him up again.
Then, he wakes up. Among his teary, shocked and tender reunion with Ruby and her team, the man is brought up to date with the events and decides to talk to them about his pact as they leave the island.
Chapter 41- Back at Nanko Hospital, Weiss is told of her total eye loss. She closes a little into herself, causing Yang to worry, despite Blake and Ruby's attempts to calm her down.
Their unease becomes stronger as they learn of a series of strange lines in Jaune's back. Combined with his telling of the contract to Avyssos, it is a cause for concern- but is temporarily dismissed at Renora's arrival.
Meanwhile, Alizar wakes up in a hostel room, being treated by Cherry. They discuss about their future plans and reach a mutual understanding before they decide to inform the council of their crushing defeat.