[di&$?eb=+!ya?%!rt]
[[]]
It took Ruby a few minutes to walk back down to the basement, though she noticed the amount of ghost's she was encountering in the halls were noticeably lessened, even the ghost mice and bats were less.
Either way she had reached the basement, and quickly noticed an iron door at the end of the hallway, a few exploding hedgehogs coming out of it.
After waiting a few moments to let the ghosts explode, Ruby unlocked the only door she could and proceeded into the room.
Immediately to her left she noticed a large amount of water constantly rushing downward, and a large pool of odd green liquid near the corner of the room, funneled into a trench thankfully, but still there.
When she approached the pool, small green wisps popped out and tried to tackle Ruby, only for Ice Elemental Ghost to appear from a frozen barrel in the room and intercept the wisps, at the same time a trio of grappler ghosts appeared in the room, two red and one white.
Ruby dispersed the white ghost first, as it was only an annoyance, not an actual threat, before blasting one of the red ghost's with ice and proceeding to blind the other red ghost.
Once she had captured one of the reds, the white returned as the other red remobilized. Seeing this, Ruby retreated to a corner and waited for the two ghosts to come to her, then blinded the both of them and caught them, lighting up the room.
Ruby smirked as she looked around the room for the Boo hiding in it, finding the ghost hidden within a crate that held a lantern on top.
"I'm Booffant!" The ghost declared as it glanced at Ruby, "Nice hair Red." The Boo complimented before it tried to ram into Ruby. Things didn't turn out as the Boo had hoped, however as Ruby was quick to capture it.
"Alright, two Boo's left." Ruby said, "Thank heaven." Ruby wasn't sure how many more puns she could handle, "Okay, there's gotta be a key in here."
She couldn't see any chest that had appeared, however there was still the rushing water in the corner of the room, as well as a valve at the corner of the room, beyond the green ooze.
"I may not be a plumber, but I do know from my house's basement that valves usually control liquid flow." Ruby said as she walked up to the ooze and using what left she had in the Poltergust, froze the liquid into a safe solid, then proceeded to cross it and turn the valve.
After a few turns Ruby smiled as she heard the water come to a stop, turning around, Ruby smiled as she saw the water in the corner of the room had stopped.
"Yes!" Ruby cheered as she ran to the chest that had been hidden by the water, opening it to reveal there was a key inside.
Sure it led to the room directly south of her, but that meant there was only one room after that one that was between her and King Boo.
Ruby bolted out of the pipe room and to the next room, however after she unlocked the room she nearly fell over at the sheer blast of cold that came out of the room, to which everything was frozen other than the door and a small burner.
"Holy…" Ruby breathed as icicles began to fall from the ceiling, Ruby quickly made her way to the burner and stuffed a fire elemental spirit into the Poltergust, the proceeded to grab a second one and stuff it under her shirt around her belly, granted the ghost went through Ruby's shirt, but it got the message Ruby was sending and stuck as close to her as it possibly could.
In the corner of the room were two piles of wood, seeking more warmth Ruby did the natural thing, lit the wood on fire, warming the room noticeably and also causing a large block of ice to materialize in front of Ruby around the campfires.
Within the ice was another Portrait Ghost.
This one was dressed like an old Atlesian Arctic Explorer, and had a pair of round white, furry ears sticking out of his hood. This was the Polar Bear Faunus, Weston.
"HOT!" Weston shouted "OH VERY HOT! YOU! You're making it too HOT! I'm going to cook in this heat! I'm going to melt! Did you light these FIRES!? What were you thinking!?"
"I'm thinking I was going to freeze to death in here!" Ruby shouted at Weston.
"Humans who start fires in this mansion better be ready to pay the price!" Weston shouted as he began moving in the ice, raising his arms, "Now learn your lesson human!"
With that Weston swung his arms down, creating a wave of ice spikes that shattered not long after they appeared.
Sheer enhanced reflex was all that saved Ruby's life, however she had a clear method to combat Weston, fire.
Ruby aimed the Poltergust and launched fireball after fireball at the ice protecting Weston, as he returned with ice waves as icicles continued to fall from the ceiling.
However in this duel there would only be one inevitable winner, after all only one side was moving.
With one last fireball, the ice protecting Weston shattered, and a look of shock and fear spread across his face as Ruby switched from fire, to suction.
"No! NO!" Weston shouted as he struggled to escape the Poltergust, "Not again, not by another human!" Weston shouted, but even with the ice falling from the ceiling Weston lost to the Poltergust and was caught.
The lights in the Cold Storage came on, the ice on the floor melted quickly, though it was still rather cold in the room, it was no longer lethal… Or at least not nearly as lethal.
Ruby smiled as a blue chest appeared in the room, and at the same time a Boo shot out of a nearby crate and practically latched onto the burner.
"WARMTH!" The Boo shouted, "WARMTH AT LAST!"
"What the-!?" Ruby cried out at the Boo's antics.
It was then the Boo noticed Ruby. "Oh... " The Boo said, "Hi."
"Hi." Ruby said as she aimed the Poltergust at the Boo, "I'm just going to catch you now."
"Catch me? Boolderdash!" The Boo declared before diving to a wall, slamming into it like several previous Boo's had.
Needless to say, Ruby caught the Boo.
"One more." Ruby said as she took the key from the chest and checked where it needed to go…
"BACK ON THE THIRD FLOOR!?" Ruby cried out.
[]
Another trek up the stairs led Ruby to the last room on the third floor that was locked, and without hesitance, Ruby unlocked and entered the room. The Artist studio, where the last Portrait Ghost was waiting for Ruby.
Vincent Van Gore.
[Luigi's Mansion OST: Talk with Ghosts]
Ruby's eyes were immediately drawn to the side of the room, where several easels lie spread across the room, each painting on them depicting a ghost Ruby had fought in the mansion.
The Yellow ones, The Pink ones, The Blues ones, Red Grapplers, The Masked Ghosts, The Banana Eating ones, and the Purple Bomb droppers.
"Eet eez you, no? You interfere with my afterlifes work?" A voice sounded from the otherside of the room drawing Ruby's attention.
The ghost at the end of the room had a noticeably green tinge to him, along with his green coat, and a red beret atop his head, he turned around to face Ruby, a painting palette in one hand a brush in his other, and a blond hair, beard and moustache.
"You filthy swine!" Van Gore shouted, You're blind to zee life I give my creations!"
"No I'm not, your creations are attacking me!" Ruby declared, "If your creations were dear to you wou wouldn't let them run around like they are!"
Van Gore chuckled, "Truly you are blind." Van Gore said, "Zen very well… I will show you zee mastery of my art!" Van Gore dabbed his brush on the paints he hand before launching some energy at the paintings in the room.
A cloud of fog appeared around the painting of the yellow ghosts, and when it lifted, a trio of yellow ghosts slid out of the painting, which was not left devoid of a subject.
Because they were close to Ruby, she blinded all three at once and caught them with ease.
It was then the fog enshrouded the pink ghost painting.
'Oh no.' Ruby thought as she realized all the paintings in the room were about to come to life, and she knew that with ghosts, quantity was a quality all of its own.
She reached around herself to try and find the fire spirit that had joined her in the cold storage room, quickly finding and grabbing it.
The little ghost looked at her and nodded before she hurled it at the painting of the blue ghosts, then she focused on the trio of pink ghosts that were coming at her.
When they were close enough she unleashed flames upon them, destroying the newly born ghosts.
Looking toward where she had thrown the fire elemental , Ruby was genuinely surprised to see the ghost hadn't dissolved upon impact with the painting of the blue ghosts, but was instead pulling the easel, eventually knocking it over to collide with the other painting, all of which caught on fire, destroying them before ghosts could come from them.
The sounds of flames and crashing caused Van Gore to drop his brush and palette and turn around in terror.
"No… No no no no NO!" Van Gore shouted in horror, "My… My creations!" Van Gore dropped his arms, defeated, "But even if I disappear, what works I do have will still live on…" The ghost then began to chuckle madly, "Zat eez right, n'est-ce pas? Art eez eternal!"
"Sorry Van Gore." Ruby said, aiming her Poltergust at the Ghost, "The only creation left is the one right behind you." Ruby looked at the painting of a golden chest on the easel Van Gore was working on.
"What… Only one of my creations eez left?" Van Gore muttered, "But… zees cannot be! Zut alors!" Van Gore cried out in mania.
Ruby decided to end this and began to vacuum up the art ghost, who put up a surprising struggle, but inevitably was caught and trapped in the Poltergust.
With the last portrait ghost caught, the light in the room came on, and a cloud of fog appeared around the chest portrait, shooting out a golden key with a spade shaped head.
"The last key." Ruby said walking up to the key and grabbing it, a golden sheen running across the key in the light as a sparkle glittered off the teeth of the key.
"Now the Boo." Ruby said as she looked around the room, after shaking some of the rubble, drove the ghost out of hiding.
The last Boo appeared, a golden glimmer hidden inside its body, "Bootique, c'est chic!" The Boo announced.
The battle between Ruby and Bootique was short, with RUby coming out on top as the winner.
When Bootique went into the Poltergust however, something popped out of the ghost.
Ruby took a glance on the floor at what the ghost had lost, and her jaw dropped at what she saw.
"Another Gold Diamond." Ruby said in awe, quickly vacuuming up the jewel then taking another look at the key in her hands.
She gripped the key tightly and took a deep breath, "I'm coming mom." Ruby whispered.
[E. Gadd's lab.]
"Weiss?" Blake asked as she waved a hand in front of Weiss who was looking at the constantly updating account of the treasures Ruby found in the mansion, "Hello?"
"What's wrong with her?" Yang asked as she hopped over on the crutches Blake had passed over to her.
"I dunno, Weiss was watching Ruby's treasure count when she just turned catatonic." Blake said, "On the plus side Ruby managed to catch all fifty of the Boo's."
"Great." Yang said, as she looked at the frozen Weiss, "Hey Blake, hold me steady."
Blake raised an eyebrow as Yang approached, but shrugged.
Weiss was unaware of all this as two thoughts repeated in Weiss's head.
'Two Gold Diamonds.' Weiss thought, 'Ruby's the richest woman on Remnant.'
This thought was cut off when something wet entered Weiss's ear.
"AAAAIIIIIEEEE!"
[[]]
Cutting it here because King Boo is getting his own chapter, along with a brief aftermath.
Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time.