Hello everyone! How are you doing? Hope you are all fine!
Chapter 89 is here and as always, I hope you enjoy it!
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See you all next week with Ch. 90. Until then, have fun and be well!
A large bloody pulp welcomed them as they turned left in the staircase. The trails of something having slithered around the corner, dragging a wide line of blood with it, filled their guts with nausea.
"That Avyssos Grimm must be massive- I hadn't realized from Weiss' description how monstrous it is" Erik commented. Lumia stared from the corner and noted for him to follow "neither did I- don't worry."
They moved down, walking along thick trails of dried-up blood and gore as they landed on the floor, passing by a destroyed sign that indicated it was hosting the patients' wings.
There were blood splatters everywhere, but paled in comparison to the thick blood trails that spread all over the place, leading deep inside the corridor towards the patients' rooms.
There were no signs of struggle, attempt of fleeing or indications of any battle having taken place; only the massive trails that looked as if half a dozen humongous snakes had slithered across the corridor, leaving a series of wide, deep craters, paved in crimson dried blood in their path.
Snakes or- they gulped- tentacles. The image of a huge Grimm taking its time as it walked all over the place during a starry night and eradicated all life as its wet, bloodied tendrils dragged its victims' remains along its path of slaughter made the seasoned huntsmen chill to their bones.
Erik took one step ahead and then stopped. In the poorly-lit passage, he managed to notice something that shouldn't be there; a human-sized silhouette that withdrew into the wall as soon as his eyes fell upon it.
"Is there a problem?" Lumia, just a couple steps behind him, asked. "I saw someone, no, something in the corridor on our right. It vanished as soon as I noticed it."
The girl narrowed her eyes; there was nothing to be seen there. Taking everything that had transpired into account, of course, this was hardly assuring. But, that was not the point at the moment.
"It is highly possible it's a trap" Lumia exclaimed. "We have to find Ren and Nora; if it were either of them, they wouldn't have fled from us."
"But it could also be a survivor" he said. "If they saw us and thought we are Grimm in disguise as the cleaner lady, then it would make sense for them to flee. We have to help them if that's the case."
Deep emerald eyes narrowed "could you please take a look around you and then repeat what you just said? How would any person escape this massacre and survive in this place for so many weeks?"
"I don't know" he replied "but it's also possible than it's someone who, like us, was trapped in here recently. I mean, are we just going to turn a blind eye at the possibility of saving someone? We are huntsmen, Lu."
She closed her eyes and licked her lips. The taste of blood and grime was still fresh on her mouth. She couldn't help but be worried; she had lost many friends, even before she had met Erik and the others.
She opened her eyes and stared around. She stared at the bloody trails that filled the half-lit wings. She stared at the thick craters that led to the corridor. She stared at the open doors, deceptively serene.
"Let's just make a quick check then" she conceded, earning a smile of gratitude from her partner. "Thanks Lu" he winked as she passed by "where did you see it flee?" she asked, standing in front of the corridor.
"There" he pointed at a half-open door. She nodded "I am going to take cover and support you as soon as you get in, got it?" she asked and he nodded back at her, wordlessly.
They slowly walked through the corridor, carefully avoiding the broken pieces of glass and cracked tiles on the floor, stepping over the craters and moving with their backs on the wall until they reached the door.
Lumia held her breath and stared inside; it seemed like a small patient room. From her limited viewpoint, she could see signs of struggle and a few old-looking bloodstains. "It seems to be clear" she whispered.
Erik took one deep breath and ran inside opening the door with his left hand as he held a wooden plank he picked up from the above floor on his right.
His chestnut-colored eyes drifted to every side of the room, trying to notice any sort of movement; aggressive or not. The only things he saw, though, were three torn-up, bloodstained beds and lots of blood trails.
The tendril-like marks were present as well. There was a particularly nasty, blood-colored one on a window, on top of a dried blood puddle.
"There are only remnants of blood and violence here; as to the details of what transpired here, I dread to think" he said, sadness evident on his voice. "Don't worry, Erik" Lumia's cold voice replied from the door.
He turned around- and felt his blood freeze in his veins. His partner was staring at him through circular eyes with tiny red irises, mouth widened in a mocking, sinister smile filled in needle-sharp, grime-covered teeth.
A huge tendril, black as darkness, stretched out from her left arm and slammed him on the ground. Before he could even scream, he felt wet, disgusting flesh coil around his body and force his mouth shut.
"There are going to be so many things happening to you so soon" the tendril dragged him on the floor, bringing him face-to-face with her- no, with it- "that you won't have time to think, trust me on that."
He stared at it, his body trembling in fear. That beast; that cursed thing that had dared imitate his trusted partner… it would soon-
"Yes…" it bit his neck, scraping his aura and letting a nasty line of saliva on his skin, making him crawl. "I imitated your partner" it whispered in her voice in his ear, reading his thoughts "and now I will soon… die?"
Before the monster could completely register what exactly Erik's mind could mean by thinking this, a tall shadow ran through the door and cut its tendril, spilling dark, acidic blood on the walls and floor.
Gaining momentum, the shadow grabbed the monster's back. That was all it took. "AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" a horrified, unearthly scream of pain and immense agony filled the destroyed wing.
The Grimm collapsed, grabbing its head and twisting in pain. Its tendril vanished, releasing Erik from its terrifying embrace. And between them, Lumia Starlight stood, glaring at her near-perfect wicked eidolon.
She had her hair tied up in a tight bun and had removed her coat and blouse, wearing only a black tank-top on. Her left arm and midriff were bandaged and she held her great sword, Buster Orion, in her right one.
Her backpack was strapped on her back, Nora's weapons sticking up from it. "Remaining Sense of Pain" she announced to the still flailing enemy whose cries of agony sounded like music to her ears.
She sat on top of it, pressing its chest with her knees. "Since you were able to replicate my body, memories and mannerisms, I take it you know already about my ability to make others relive painful wounds."
She pressed even harder "for the record; Erik's semblance needs to connect with the other person's aura. If you had bothered to search my memories for that, you would understand why you failed to trick him."
It panted and gasped, trying to throw her down. But the amount of pain it was in was so much; it couldn't even put up resistance as Lumia kept talking in a cold, deathly voice.
"Tell me, oh mighty Grimm" she lowered her voice "how does it feel to have a body that feels pain, but no soul that can help you endure it? It must be horrible, isn't it?" she grabbed its neck.
It opened and closed its mouth a few times, trying its best to form any sort of coherent words. But only a faint gurgling sound escaped its lips.
"Don't worry" Lumia rose her sword "there are going to be so many things happening to you so soon, that you won't have time to think" she slowly passed her blade through its neck "trust me on that."
A couple minutes later, Lumia stoop up from a large puddle of dark blood that oozed and hissed as it slowly corroded the floor. Her legs and arms were slightly burnt, and she needed a new pair of trousers.
But she felt satisfied; satisfied and happy as she launched herself at her best and oldest friend giving him a bone-shattering hug he returned in kind. "I am so glad you are all right; thanks for saving me" he told her.
"You were the one who gave me enough time to deal with it; using your own self to lure it in was a really risky move" she countered while she was checking his neck for any puncture wounds "well done fooling it."
"Well, that seemed the only plausible-" "OOOOOO" the loud, pulsing cacophonous sound that interrupted his reply resonated inside the now empty wing, breaking the windows and even shattering the door.
The world twisted around them; literally. The ceiling lowered and the floor ascended, as the walls started melting away. The very air became stale and heavy, threatening to suffocate them.
"Pain…" behind the melting walls, faces started to form. Twisted, dead faces filled in agony. "It hurts…" ghastly, pitch-black arms shot out from the walls and the ceiling, sharp dripping claws trying to grab them.
Erik tried to move, stumbled and was dragged up by Lumia "Move! We can't stay here!" she pushed him out of the room and jumped after him landing at the similarly melting corridor.
The walls cracked. Arms lashed out, molten concrete dripping all over them. From inside the cracks, dozens of pulsing red eyes looked at the two huntsmen; their prey. A loud slithering sound echoed around them.
"Pain…" Lumia felt her hair stand on edge as the monsters from inside the walls whispered directly in their minds- in her very own voice. They stood up and ran, the world twisting around them.
"You know pain, don't you?" "SHUT UP!" she screamed to let out all the disgust and frustration filling her very soul. The hall moved to the left and made the corridor appear beneath their feet.
"LU!" Erik grabbed on to the elevator's door and Lumia barely managed to latch on to his feet. They were practically holding on at the edge of a huge well, formed by the shifting of the walls and floor around them.
"YOU KNOW PAIN, YOU SAY?" her voice, deep, monstrous and twisted as she never thought she would hear it. It made her stomach churn. She dared take a look in the well below her- and instantly regretted it.
The walls cracked and a massive black cloud started to ascend. Its flesh was a dark as the blackest ink and swirled with malice so powerful it could put normal Grimm to shame.
The creature swirled and whirled. To them, it felt more like it filled the well instead of climbing it. Red, monstrous eyes, thick black tentacles and bone-covered mouths made of jagged teeth danced on its surface.
"PULL US UP!" Erik didn't even wait for her to finish her order. Before the massive cloud of malice could catch up to them, he used his elbows to stabilize his position and then grabbed Lumia with his left hand.
Feeling the tentacles move towards them, she stepped on the elevator and climbed up, helping her partner on her way as they both jumped on the foothold created by the former staircase corner.
All of a sudden, normal gravity returned. They fell down, rolled on the stairs and ended up on top of each other. "Fuck this place" Erik said.
Quickly jumping up to their feet, they ran to the second floor, not even trying to rationalize what they had just experienced- or think about its implications.
-o—
"I swear" Nora held back her tears while unrolling the thin pink stripes she had torn from her coat to make improvised bandages with. Ren, at the receiving end of both her tender care and furious outburst, nodded.
"You didn't even think about it; you just protected me. Stupid Ren" she pouted and groaned and complained as she had been doing for the last three minutes since they were both tossed down here.
And 'here' was a long, dark tunnel with tiles on the floor, washed-up walls whose color was white once and a high ceiling. There was no sign of blood or gore, but the air was heavy and suffocating.
"Thanks" Ren tenderly kissed his wife "I can't feel any enemies around" he added. "Good; I want to break that thing in half, after we have found the others" the ginger girl commented.
Ren didn't reply; he too was furious. Killing innocents, doing Gods know what to Jaune, taking Pyrrha's form… he clenched his teeth. "It's our fault, isn't it? We brought this thing here, didn't we?" he asked Nora.
The girl's face dropped "do you think it killed everyone who was in the hospital?" she asked, as they started moving "do you think Jaune has already been…" she hesitated to finish her thoughts.
"It seems to be able to read memories and replicate both the skills and the appearance of people it finds inside one's mind; to what extent we can't know, as we can't know the requirements. They must be-"
He stopped. No, that wouldn't be the case. Wishful thinking was more Ruby and Yang's domain, not his.
"Let's try and find the others first and then we can think about how to destroy it- if anyone's still alive, we can free them this way" he fought the dread looming over his heart with rationality "we also owe it to the people who were killed because of our carelessness" he grimly noted.
"That's not bringing them back to their loved ones and you know it" she commented while walking forward, trying to notice anything unusual at the corridor- no, tunnel- they were currently trying to escape from.
"Yes" he simply replied, lightly squeezing her hand for a mere moment before they went back to searching. "This is weird- why would a tunnel exist beneath a hospital? We must be really deep" Nora wondered.
They turned around a corner and came across a series of carved stairs leading even deeper. The tiles were slowly stopping, giving way to dirt and unprocessed stone in the walls, floor and ceiling.
"I don't think this is part of the hospital, Nora" Ren eyed the path that would lead them even deeper in suspicion. He stared at the girl "those monsters must have a reason for making it."
The message was clear and Nora didn't even have to process it; if there were any survivors left here, it would be an ideal place to have them. It also meant they were going down a more dangerous path.
Ren turned around, making Nora raise an eyebrow "Ren?"
"We are checking the other side of the tunnel first. It looks like it was part of the original hospital before so we may find something to use as a weapon or light source if we are lucky enough" he replied.
Now having a better grasp of the situation, the couple's pace increased as they walked back, noticing the floor slightly curving upwards as they kept moving.
They reached a debris-filled point- the place they had fallen into- and stared up making sure nothing was looking at them from the top of the pit whose immense length reminded them how deep they had fallen in.
After making sure nobody was observing them, they continued. "You know" Nora stared at her husband "aren't they ignoring us too much? It was ready to take me on at once up there" she wondered.
To be honest, he had been wondering exactly the same thing "maybe it is waiting for us to get tired" he answered, sparing a few gazes behind their backs "or waiting for us to find the exit and ambush us there."
"Why would it- oh, right" the ginger head rubbed her head as if trying to peel off the disgusting feeling this place gave her "Weiss mentioned it liked to cultivate its victims' negative feelings before eating them."
She shivered, making Ren rub the back of her nape; he had found that it calmed her quite a lot even without the use of his semblance. "If it is a matter of mental strength, we have more than enough" he assured her.
"Daring, aren't we?" the slithering voice, monstrously mutated yet holding a slight resemblance to Pyrrha's, replied to Ren. At once, both of them turned and stood back-to-back in full alert for the incoming attack.
Yet, the attack never came. There was no horrible monster, suffocating miasma or a glass-faced, horribly smiling monstrous Pyrrha anywhere.
"We are being watched" the magenta-eyed boy announced. "That big ass-" "Let's go, Nora. And keep your eyes open" he cut her off before starting to move again.
They walked, now in full alert, for a while until they reached the end of the tunnel. There was a small ladder and an elevator door on the right and a large, metal door on the left. The sign above it read 'MORGUE'.
"Oh I don't like this" Nora gulped, yet kept following Ren. "At least this place shouldn't have any living people in to begin with" or that's what he hoped for; Nora had seen enough horrors for today, he thought.
The door was clean and without any marks of combat or blood remains splattered around. Nora tried it- it was unlocked. She then slowly pushed it open, being extra careful to make as little noise as possible.
The inside was neat, clean and cold. There was a huge metal table in the middle of the room and a series of lockers on the wall marked with numbers and showcased by small green lights.
A smaller metal door was on the left of the room. It was sturdy-looking and closed, with the keys still on. Two dusty, white robes were thrown on the floor in front of it. "Guess they left in a hurry, didn't they?"
"How come this room has still power?" he asked back. Nora shook her shoulders. "Those lockers are full of dead bodies aren't they?" her voice asked. They stepped in and noticed their breaths becoming visible.
"Most likely yes; it is a morgue after all. And it's still cold; let's search around, Nora. There might be some dust left we can use." His wife gave him a toothy grin and opened the smaller door "it's a storage room."
"Good" he replied. "Try find anything useful" his eyes fell on a bench in the back corner- and the scalpels and surgical tools that were laid on it.
He stepped forward and took one in his hands. It was a fine scalpel, if slightly dusty from the- dust knew how much time had passed since Avyssos had massacred the hospital. He spun the fine blade in his-
All of a sudden, his eyes opened wide and his face grew pale. As his fingers spun and turned the scalpel, he saw something being reflected on its clean, silvery blade.
That something was smiling at him, with black, scarred lips and jagged teeth protruding from them. The face was a pale visage of human flesh and was full of cracks that revealed black skin underneath it.
Its eyes, once a beautiful resemblance of Pyrrha's green ones, now shone red, full of predatory hunger and inhuman malice. As for the body, Ren couldn't resist gulping audibly when he adjusted the knife.
There was no visible core; only a mass of the deepest darkness formed the Grimm's body. No, that was inaccurate; he could see dozens of eyes staring at him from that darkness.
And he was sure they could stare at him as well. The creature licked its lips "come on Ren, turn around. We both know you can sense me."
The voice was much less monstrous than before, having returned to its near-perfect Pyrrha impersonation. Listening to that voice coming from that horrifying visage angered and scared him to no end.
"How brave… how strong you are Ren…" it whispered. "Fear and anger are truly palatable, but I desire something stronger from you, and far more precious… despair." It hissed its monstrous voice resurfacing.
As for him, he kept his emotions on check. He was proud of his ability to remain calm and collected under any circumstance, so he flipped the scalpel-
"I wonder; if I go to the next room and flay Nora to pieces while making sure to let her heart and mind intact till her very dying breath" it tilted its head towards the left.
Where his wife, his partner, his most loved person was, weaponless "I wonder, what sort of reaction will you give me then?"
He jumped at the monstrous foe, imbuing his left fist and the scalpel with what little aura his body's low reserves could muster at this time. Exactly what the grinning monstrosity expected- and wanted him to do.
A large, slimy tentacle, made of charcoal-black flesh and filled in sinister red eyes slammed him on the chest, breaking what little aura was left in his body. He flew across the room and painfully crashed on the wall.
"Now, be a good boy and let me finish, will you? I promise-" Ren stood up. There was no way he could let this thing go get Nora. Not as long as he stood there to buy her time!
The monster's smile faded and a series of tendrils sprouted out from its form "fine" was the only thing it said before the smell of ozone and the immense increase in the room temperature made the man laugh.
"Hey you" loud, heavy thuds echoed inside the morgue, coming from Nora's direction. The smell of ozone grew stronger. "Yes I am talking to you; the one who thinks it's funny to torment my man."
The lights from the corpse storage room had already faded and the cold had vanished as Nora came into view "the one who walks around with my friend's face and voice like it's some sort of game for you."
Her body was literally pulsing with power. Her hair stood up, braids full of static "the one who messed with my team leader and killed all those poor people for no reason whatsoever."
Her turquoise eyes shone with might. Yet her face was dead serious as she dropped a small, broken machine on the ground and raised a large wooden plank she had taken out from the storage room.
"Tell me" Nora gave Avyssos a furious, toothy grin "do you know how much lightning dust a backup hospital generator can pack?"