Hello everyone! How are you? Hope you are all doing fine!
Chapter 88 is here and as always, I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks once more for following/ reading/ favoring the story. You are all the best!
See you next week in Ch. 89. Until then, be well and have fun!
"Long story sort" Weiss summarized what Ruby's scouting had revealed "the left path leads down, the right one to an ascending staircase and in front of us is a corridor that goes straight ahead, am I right?"
"Yes" the crimson girl replied, carefully observing all three paths in an attempt to notice any traces of the monster they had thought they had seen earlier. She wished she would find nothing, if course.
"If this is a lab, I assume most of the main facilities will be on ground level and the lower ones will be used as storage for hazardous material. In that case, we should go ahead first" the ex-heiress pondered.
"Not that I have any experience, Weiss, but I am not sure going that rushing in blindly is a good idea. Maybe we should start from the top; gain a few pieces of info about the place."
Weiss carefully eyed her partner "you are being cautious; is it because of the… thing?" she asked, a little hesitant. "That too" the reply came "but there are many weird things around this place even without it."
The pale girl raised a thin eyebrow, giving her enough time to continue "the place reminds me more of a dungeon than a lab. I see blood and trails of combat around. How do they navigate? There is not even one sign on map- does Azure want them to memorize the lab structure?"
Weiss was taken aback. But her shock quickly gave way to deep and careful analysis. Ruby was right, the place was strange. And, come to think of it, there was another thing she had noticed before but ignored until now "where are the motors and the power generators?"
"Come again?" "This place is supposed to be a water-powered power plant, according to Chief Bright. So, where are the motors and the generators? As a matter of fact, isn't the river way too far from here?"
Silver eyes blinked a couple times and then narrowed. "Let's assume it is a lab; where would the personnel's quarters be?" Weiss pointed to the right "on the highest floor; as far from the storages as possible."
"Let's go up; we will find a staff member, grab him and have him tell us what the eff is going on in this place and where Azure and the prisoners are" she grabbed Thorn and moved towards the staircase, Weiss in tow.
The stairs were in a bad state as well. Bullet holes, blood trails, human remains and claw marks composed quite a grotesque and brutal image of what the establishment's fate must have been.
Having now shut their lamp off and only allowing Ruby's light torch to illuminate their path, the pair slowly ascended it to the first floor. Like below, darkness and signs of combat welcomed the huntresses.
Ruby stood in the corner of the stairs, hidden behind the wall. She rose a finger and pointed to the opening and then to her ears. Weiss stood and, after a while managed to hear it as well- the sound of footsteps.
Being extremely cautious, they peeked from the corner and managed to briefly see a man enter a door just a few meters away from them. He wore a white coat and a mask, even though the dim light didn't help at all in noting down their details.
"He is inside the room; that could be our chance" Ruby whispered to her partner. "What if there are others inside there?" Weiss asked. "I will use my semblance and knock them all out at once" she replied.
The petite girl nodded and made a quick motion forward "I will open the door with a glyph; be ready to act" they tiptoed to the door, always cautious to not be seen by any passerby, and stood just beside it.
This is going very well; alarmingly so Weiss thought as she activated a gravity black glyph and pulled the door open. The exact same moment Ruby stormed in- and stopped at once.
"What's the… matter?" Weiss stepped in, closing the door behind her. The room was small and messy. A single bed, a small bookshelf, a desk and a chair were the only pieces of furniture decorating it.
But, that was hardly the point. The furniture was rotten and splintered, filled in brown blood splatters. Facing down on top of a moldy carpet was a human body covered in a long white coat and wearing a mask.
The coat was filled in red-brown bloody stains and from the amount of blood around it one could easily understand the person was dead. Ruby took a quick stare around and felt the blood in her veins freeze.
"There- there is nobody here but the corpse" she announced. "Where is the figure we saw?" Weiss asked, trying to ignore the implications of what was happening in front of her. Her partner pointed to the corpse.
"I think I recognize the coat and that they wore a mask" she felt her lips dry as she blurted the answer she didn't want to consider. "Ruby, that person is dead" Weiss countered, a little hesitant.
"We saw them getting in" Ruby gulped. Was she sweating? "Corpses don't walk, Ruby. And this one has been dead for a while." "Y-You don't sound as sure as you usually do, Weiss" the brunette countered back.
"Why" she swallowed hard "why don't you check the body then, if you are so sure?" Silver met mismatched cyan and blinked. "Hold the torch" Ruby Rose finally consented "if it moves, kick it in the head. Please!"
"I promise" Weiss gripped Myrtenaster while lighting the body as her sister-in-law turned it around. The front was filled in cuts and blood. The mask was- both girls exchanged a sharp look- resembling a Grimm.
"It's less elaborate but looks like Cherry's" Weiss noted. "Should I take it off? Close the poor fellow's eyes?" Ruby asked her. "I think it would be a respectable thing to do, yes" Weiss agreed.
"I am sorry for disturbing your rest" trembling fingers reached out and took the mask off- and then Ruby pressed her free hand to her mouth to stifle a scream that rose up from her very soul.
Weiss' body trembled, making the light dance on the corpse's face. The shadows played in the flickering light, sending twisted forms on the wall and giving birth to unnamable images that feasted on the girls' fear.
The face was half-eaten, small pieces of flesh hanging from its deep wounds. The outlines of bones and teeth could be seen below the red outlines and the slowly decaying flesh.
Its eyes were open, resembling two large pieces of cold, void glass that stared in the infinite through blood-filled sockets and muddy hair.
"Ruby" the alabaster girl said in a rushed voice "please open his coat; I want to see something." Without even asking, the reaper complied and revealed a heavily damaged body, filled in mangled, rotting flesh.
"This makes no sense" Weiss whispered "why- why is he only partially decomposed? Half his body is in pristine condition! As if he died a few-"
"A few minutes ago" Ruby completed her. "It may sound cliché, but I am having a really, really bad feeling about this" she stood up. "What is happening here? And what is Azure doing in such a place?"
"Let's search in another room, please. I am not feeling that comfortable here." Ruby concurred and they quickly left the room after checking for enemies in the low-lit corridor around them.
The next two rooms were in a bad state of abandon and ruin. Nothing except for destroyed pieces of furniture and ruined personal belongings was around, so both girls passed them quite quickly.
There was a third room in the far end of the corridor, the door quite far from the other two, which meant it was probably a large one. Expecting to come across a control room or a dorm, Weiss opened the door.
Their expectations were betrayed, though. The room was a usual one, but its stark contrast to what they anticipated made it as worrisome as it was scary- a large, clean and well-kept chapel spread in front of them.
The ceiling was low and the pillars comically short, but there was no mistaking the large altar; a human-tall chalice made of pitch-black rock carried by- Ruby shivered- four statues depicting clawed scarecrows.
On the left and right of the room, a series of ornamental talismans hang from the walls, made of bone, wood or other stuff Weiss decided to not pay close attention to, for her own sanity's sake than anything else.
What drew her attention were the arrays of sickly green runes carved on every inch of the pitch-black rock, filling the altar with energy, yet not providing any additional light into the room.
"Look" Ruby whispered and tapped Weiss' shoulder. When she saw she had her attention, she moved her flashlight across the room, revealing a small number of white-cloaked, blood covered masked corpses.
"That's weird" the ex-heiress exclaimed for the umpteenth time today "the entire place is clean and devoid of any signs of battle or massacre. How did those people die in such a messy manner?"
"Let's go; this has nothing to do with us and we have wasted enough time" Ruby turned around towards the door, slightly aggravated.
'Earth cannot hold that which I command'
Ruby stopped. It wasn't the loud, arrogant voice that echoed from inside the altar as if coming from the deepest pits of hell, or the pulse of wicked energy suddenly filling the room and making the air heavy.
What stopped her was the look of sheer terror in Weiss' eyes as the seasoned huntress saw a green, nauseating mist come out from the altar and enter the corpses, covering their bodies in power.
Silver orbs turned around just in time to view a spectacle that would haunt Ruby Rose's dreams to the end of her days; one by one, all of the corpses stood up, their gleaming bones barely holding their rotten flesh in place as they stared at the huntresses through empty, black sockets.
Without any indication, warning or the tiniest bit of sound, the walking dead opened their blood-dripping jaws and rushed forward to devour the living that dared set foot in their unholy stronghold.
-o—
The path was rather short, leading them to a small flight of descending stone stairs on the front and a sealed metal door on the left.
Pitch-black darkness engulfed the two huntresses, Blake's senses and Yang's lamp the only things helping them navigate. The faunus carefully searched the metal door and turned to her partner.
"It's sealed and, judging from the amount of moss and dust on it, hasn't been opened for a while. I think our best bet is…" she pointed to the stairs allowing her worries to show on her face "… going down below."
"Well" the blonde brawler licked her lips "down below it is." They both took one step forward, but stopped in front of the opening, noticing the heavy atmosphere and the lingering miasma pouring out of it.
"Of course" the black-haired beauty took one deep breath to steel her mind and started going down the stairs, allowing Yang's light to help her attempt to notice anything of importance as she walked.
"The floor is paved in stone" was the first thing she said "and the ceiling seems to be as well. The walls too… this place is far older than any part of the building we saw above ground- or the one Weiss and Ruby are."
"So, it's an older place and people of Cornfield built their own facility on top of it, huh?" Yang, a couple steps behind Blake, responded. "Isn't it kind of, ahem, following a pattern? Or am I reading too much into it?"
The air was becoming heavier with every step they took and the feeling of dread grew with every passing minute, threatening to numb their senses. At this point, their instincts were nearly screaming at them.
To give them a minute to calm down and learn what her partner meant, Blake decided to stop their descent "what do you mean?" she asked.
"Well" Yang took off her hat and hung in on her back "in Yugure, they had a church on top of Nyctos' chamber. Red built his mansion above Avyssos' tomb and Carmel Facility was nearby Gloomharrow Village."
Blake's bright yellow orbs shone in a cat-like manner in the low light of Yang's lamp "and this place is really creepy. So, I thought that maybe, it's the same thing with this 'Grand Mother' Grimm somehow?"
The cat girl turned her face and stared down. The end of the flight was barely visible and, of course, anything but forthcoming. She thought of what Yang said- her partner's intuition was scary accurate sometimes.
"Do you think they may have brought Cherry here to be sacrificed?" she asked. Her back was turned towards Yang, so she didn't notice the girl's lilac eyes open wide in shock. "I do now" she ominously replied.
"Still" Blake glared at her "we are not rushing in; we are going to be as careful as possible. Am I understood?" she put a little more menace in her voice than normal, but she wanted to make Yang understand-
"Its fine" the blonde replied as they started moving again "I know what you mean, so don't go all Glynda on me" Blake rubbed her head to ease the overwhelming pressure "as long as you get it, I won't."
They reached the end of the staircase, seeing a room spread in front of them. Their light was not strong enough to reveal the entire room, but they could see it was rather spacious and had a considerably tall ceiling.
They took a few steps ahead, until the yellow lamp shone a terrifying and perplexing sight; four stone pillars supported the ceiling, expertly carved to resemble larger versions of the scarecrow-like Gargoyles.
The heavy feeling had started becoming so oppressive that it took Blake a couple seconds to realize them, making a scared jump that startled her friend. "Well, this is ominous" the brawler commented half-joking.
"It also further enhances your theory; this place was definitely not built to support the power plant. Rather, it seems to have some religious…" her ears stood up "I can hear breathing from above us" she whispered.
"Oh" was the only thing Yang could reply with, except for clenching her fists. A moment later, a large shadow descended upon them from the darkness above, letting out a predatory hissing sound.
Blake let a shadow clone behind and jumped next to a pillar. Yang, on the other hand, stood firm, let her lamp down and raised her arms to block the pouncing strike, letting a small crater form below her legs.
The immense weight and power of the thing pressed her down, but this was nothing to the huntress. She grinned and pushed back, mustering all her focus to perform a series of well-placed punches at its abdomen.
Yang's flurry of blows managed to push it away, the dim light revealing their assailant's monstrous form, giving them enough time to regroup and face it as it turned around to stare at them.
It was a feline Grimm that looked like a really large panther. Its body was darker than the room's shadows and the only plating on it was the white mask covering its razor-like fangs and six red eyes.
It walked on six clawed legs as it made slow circles towards them, its fangs dripping with saliva. It had two thick whip-like tails that slithered in accordance with its own movement.
"A Displacer; fuck my life" Yang swore under her breath. These Grimm were infamous for their ferocity and cunning. Its feral eyes narrowed at them and both girls felt the air become even more suffocating.
Its hissing sound filled the room as it opened its jaws- and vanished. Or, more accurately, it didn't vanish but used its natural ability to meld in the shadows in order to escape Yang's line of sight.
"On your 10!" Blake's scream was timely enough to allow the huntress jump back as the monster emerged from the darkness and attacked her again with its front two paws and jaws.
Her jump allowed Yang to grab the monster's arm- no she didn't. Her fingers grasped empty air, making her lose her balance. Thankfully, her partner was already there, having predicted exactly that outcome.
Nightfall parried the next set of swipes aiming for Yang's stomach. A quick block with the handle slammed the ravenous teeth away.
The two tails lashed out like stingers, but Yang had recovered enough to punch them back and stomp forward to kick its belly- but she missed again, allowing it to return to the dark corner of the room with a hiss.
"One would have thought you would have learned your lesson after our previous Displacer encounter" Blake reprimanded Yang while trying to notice the hidden Grimm's movement.
"Its light-reflecting skill confuses my instincts; I can't so easily ignore its taunts" the blonde groaned. This thing had the ability to bend the light around it so the enemies couldn't calculate its exact location.
Yellow met red as it stared at Blake from the shadows "THERE!" Yang shot a couple missiles at it, but missed again. It ran out from the smoke and jumped at the faunus, but Blake blinked to the side.
She then whirled Nightfall, but her blade missed, allowing the monster to jump again into the shadows at the opposite side of the room. "This one is smarter than the other we fought; must be really old" she said.
"It uses the room as hunting grounds and utilizes the natural absence of light to add to its ability; honestly if you were not with me I would have been in seriously deep shit" the lilac-eyed woman thanked her partner.
Blake thanked her with a nod. It may have seemed cold, but she barely had time to think a plan in order to seal the Grimm's ability before it attacked them again, so kind gestures were not an option.
Back then, Ruby had asked Weiss to simply blast everything until she hit it. As our luck would have it, of course, Weiss is not here. Using dust to make up for her absence in an unknown environment is also a no.
It lunged at them again. "Golden Mirage!" Blake jumped in front of her partner and parried the rampaging attack, only for a second. As soon as the force behind the monster's strike pushed her back, she teleported.
The Displacer dismembered her clone- and got punched by Yang, who was hidden just behind it. Her metal arm finally found flesh and, for a moment, the blonde hoped she would break its skull in pieces.
She was wrong. Her punch, aiming for its head, found its left shoulder instead, delivering a painful yet not mortal blow on the Grimm. It let out a gasp of fury and pain and retreated once more in the shadows.
"Tch" Yang groaned in dissatisfaction. "We can't keep fighting like this" she exclaimed. "I agree; we have to trap it" Blake whirled her sword in order to strike as soon as it attacked. It didn't.
"It's extra cautious, as if it doesn't care how much it will take to kill us. As if…" the black-haired girl's eyes narrowed. "It's guarding the area, isn't it?" Yang replied "it looks smart enough to do something like that."
The hissing returned. It filled the room, resounding on every wall and pillar, helping the beast mask its location. Thankfully, Blake's sharp eyes were able, if only barely, to notice its outline as it moved on the wall.
"Is this why the others passed through without any fight or signs of a struggle? It guards this place for them?" her hands took a samurai-like stance, the blade's tip pointed at the enemy.
"That means we have no time to spare, right?" She was trembling. The monster was slowly seizing them and, unlike, Yang, she could sense its moves- and could see how cold-blooded and calculating they were.
The air was still suffocating, but the adrenaline rush was still helping her ignore it- as well as the horrible image of it tearing Yang to pieces, while she was screaming helpless on the ground.
"What are you-" Yang asked, but the determined gleam on her friend's eyes made her stop. "I am going to cut a path for you by not using my semblance as soon as it pounces on me, get ready."
Yang knew at once what the plan was; Blake would risk getting hit by using her clone the moment it sliced her skin while counterattacking it to help Yang locate its head and break its neck before it fled.
It was way too risky for her tastes. It was as simple as it was reckless. It also was not Blake's style- if Yang failed, the cat girl would get carved really badly by the razor-sharp claws. Yet… "I trust you got my back."
Yang stared at her best friend's back. Unlike a few moments ago, Blake was not trembling. There was not even one sign of hesitation in her.
Like Lumia was when taking on the Summer Maiden. Like Ruby when she had jumped in the sandstorm to face Cinder. Like Weiss when she protected the Orphanage Gates from the Deathstalkers in Vacuo.
"Yes" she smiled fighting down the tears from her face as Blake took a couple steps forward, lowering her sword and leaving a huge gap in her defense.
Getting caught in her trap, the Displacer jumped out from the nearby wall and attacked her with its front claws, keeping its tails back ready to grab her blade as she countered.
Blake made a quick thrust and missed; the red-colored steel passed by the paw's actual location and was grabbed by the tails.
A pair of sharp claws tried to maim her flesh, skidding painfully on her aura, forcing her to stifle a pained cry.
Powerful jaws, covered in white plating, opened to cut her carotid. She let go of Nightfall and bent backwards, relying on her agility rather than her semblance to earn one important second.
In that important second, a furious blonde landed next to the monster's tails, now visible due to grabbing Blake's sword, and punched its neck, breaking its spine and sending its head roll on the floor as it vanished.