Hello everyone! How are you doing? Hope you are all fine.
Here is chapter 107. As always, wish you all enjoy it!
And in a rare display of originality, thank you all again for following, favoring or just reading the story! You all rock!
See you next week in chapter 108. Until then, be well and have fun!
To her surprise, there was no mighty wind or chilling breeze blowing at her face and hair. The only thing Blake saw after a couple steps inside the shadow cloud was a slowly moving dark miasma.
Instead of whirling around as it seemed to do from the outside, it gently waved and covered everything, obstructing her vision. Only a few wisps moving around like candle smoke made her realize it moved at all.
For some reason, that annoyed her much more than she expected. She turned around and groaned as she failed to see any of her teammates.
"I told you to keep in touch! Where are you?!" she shouted, in a rare for her display of anger. "Geez, we are just here! Don't scream like a startled Nuckelavee the moment your superior eyesight can't see us!"
The voice was Weiss' and it came from a lot closer than she expected it to. They must have been near, only hidden by the dark veil. Her anger only rose; why the heck didn't they tell anything? "Who the heck-"
"What's the matter with both of you all of a sudden?" the bunny-girl's voice, angrier than almost any time they had ever heard her be, cut them off "do you want us to start screaming as well? Because I will!"
"Ok, listen up you-" Blake's eyes opened wide in shock. The words 'little bitch' died in her throat, as the cat faunus' mind managed to register a very pressing matter- their behavior made zero sense right now. Fuck.
"We are under Nyctos' spell! Everyone calm down please!" Apparently Yang had the exact same thought, if her pleading was any indication.
"Where are you all? Follow my voice!" Blake shouted, trying her best to restrain her urge to start cursing and swearing. It was incredible just how much that ability affected them, even after becoming aware of it.
Incredible and extremely terrifying she thought, taking a couple steps to the back and finally coming face to face with Velvet. Her fellow faunus' face was confused and slightly annoyed, but she didn't look hostile.
"Ahm… I-" "save it for now" Weiss cut off the faunus' attempt to speak, stepping next to them. Unlike the bunny girl, she wasn't confused at all. She was, however, extremely annoyed; and not due to Nyctos' effect.
"Yang!" the alabaster girl turned around and screamed "where are you, you careless bimbo?" again, there was nothing but concern lacing the petite huntresses' words.
"Coming! I just got left a little behind, you worry-" As soon as the tall woman got close enough for them to see her, a horrified expression fell on her face. Her lilac eyes opened wide and her mouth hung agape.
Blake, Weiss and Velvet looked like they had been shriveled. Wrinkles, wide and deep, marred their usually youthful skin. Their flesh was so dehydrated it looked like a curtain stretched on top of their bones.
Their brilliant, gorgeous eyes stared at her with little more life than of a suffocated fish. She took one step back and Weiss' hand- a hand so thin it could be mistaken for a skeleton's- stretched out towards her.
"Sweetheart; what are you doing?" her voice was rasped and weak. It made Yang think of how her mother had addressed her on her very last moments. Her hands trembled- she gripped her left palm to stop it.
And then, she saw it. The pulsing, throbbing eye had opened wide and glared at Yang. A small disk of sinister red light gleamed from beneath her palm, making her skin crawl in terror and disgust.
For a moment, she felt her body overheat. Was it her semblance, being unconsciously activated? Was it her anger on what was happening? Or was it due to the malicious eye's influence?
And then a cold, gloved hand grabbed her. She raised her gaze- and came face-to-face with a pair of angry feline eyes. "Get a grip" Blake's voice commanded, before her partner stepped back, revealing a very concerned Weiss who gazed at her next to relatively calm Velvet.
Much to her relief, all three of them looked their usual selves without any of the horrifying alterations she had observed before. The pale girl tried to talk but their leader cut her off before she turned around.
"We are in danger here- you can exchange pleasantries later" Blake said with her back turned, hoping none would manage to notice her trembling lips and wet eyes as she pressed forward "stay close to me."
With a lot of determination, the team made a straight path through the thick cloud. A few choice words were exchanged between Weiss, Blake and Velvet, with an unaffected Yang acting as the mediator despite her previous horrifying experience.
Finally, after quite a lot of walking as they were trying to avoid being ambushed, falling into traps or attacking each other, team BLWS burst out of the cloud and into the dome's concealed side.
"What?" they all stood side by side, trying to comprehend what their eyes was seeing as the first thing they attempted to do was take a good look at their surroundings.
The whole atmosphere was dark, as the dome blocked all sunlight. The only source of light was the towering pillar of eldritch energy that rose from the top of a forest-covered hill far in the district's north.
In its greenish light, the four huntresses saw a ghost city spread in front of them. The streets were empty of life, full of building rabble and car wreckages. Huge slabs of concrete and signs of combat were visible.
The towering apartment blocks and huge shopping centers of Vale's northwest district stood silent. Their doors were crashed and trashed. Their windows were either broken or full of smudges and bloodstains.
Same bloodstains and trails could be found all over the road, pavement and buildings' walls. Dirt and grime accompanied them, along with a high amount of dust, making the atmosphere even more oppressive.
The four girls exchanged puzzled looks. "This is not a city that was living and bustling until two days ago; this place looks like a ruined town that has been abandoned for ages!" Weiss was the first one to comment.
"Maybe it has" Velvet replied "we still don't know the rules of this place and if an Eldergrimm is involved we should take nothing for granted."
"I agree" Blake took one step forward; her faunus eyes could normally see better than the others, the bunny-girl included, but she realized this place somehow obstructed her vision. Is it magic? Or something else?
She stared back at her teammates. Weiss and Velvet stood ready for her instructions. Yang still gazed around, her eyes open wide and her mouth in a half-awestruck wide-open expression.
She narrowed her eyebrows "let's start by checking the closest shops for clues before we get further in. We need a quick rest anyway" she firmly stated before she took out her sword and started walking.
-o—
"A gleaming, throbbing red eye" Weiss, eyes narrowed and right foot tapping nervously at the bloodstained pavement, said. "Yeah; it was a really creepy thing- but not the only one" Yang answered her.
They were both currently standing in front of a ruined diner, guarding its entrance for Blake and Velvet to search the inside before they used it as a resting place. Their backs were turned at the grimy, half-cracked windows and their faces stared at the deserted, ruined streets.
"This time, it wasn't me but you" the blonde, her voice slightly low and her tone lacking any joy, continued. "It felt like you were slowly being withered away in front of my eyes; you-" she gulped and blinked.
"You had turned into a skeleton for a moment, honey. I felt my blood freeze. And then, this thing started to pulse before Blake snapped me back to reality" she held her palm high, the dark eye barely visible.
"Wasn't it supposed to be getting better?" the white huntress asked, earning a deep sigh for a response. "You saw it getting better, love. You took me to the lab and checked it thoroughly. It was getting better!"
"Exactly" Weiss capped her mouth and nose with her left hand "I was thinking that it may be improving the closer we got to the dome, but it looks like I was wrong; it doesn't follow any pattern. As if it has a-"
"Mind of its own" the blonde shivered, but didn't stop looking out for enemies. She just clenched her fists to fight the chill from running down her spine. "As if whatever this thing is, it acts as a living being."
Next to her, her fiancée pinched the bridge of her nose "it's only a mere hypothesis, just so you know. But I think it is a Grimm parasite. Just like the one Salem had implanted Cinder with" Weiss voiced her thoughts.
"Feared you would say that" Yang forced a grin to appear on her face. "I have been thinking about it since yesterday too. And I can't for the life of mine to take her mutated form out of my mind. I even dreamt of it."
"Black always looked good on you" Weiss forced a weak smile to form at her lips as well "like most colors, to be honest."
Yang averted her gaze from the road "white has recently been my very favorite one, though" she raised her metal arm for her and the white girl gently squeezed it "what are we going to do if you turn to be right?"
"We will cross the bridge when it comes to it" the reply came. "For now we have to finish the mission, save Vale from Nyctos and then we can see what to do; if Cinder resisted it that much, it should barely affect a kind and gentle person as you for now" she blurted, making Yang blush.
"I think it has affected me already; I should tell Blake about it" lilac eyes close and Yang stared back at the road after a couple moments "but on the other hand, should I?" she added, making Weiss' brows furrow.
"Kitten is struggling with the responsibilities of her leadership and the memories of our previous encounter with Nyctos already; even a blind guy could see that. Should I add more to her burden?" she explained.
"Hiding things from her would only hurt her, Yang" Weiss firmly stated. "If you trust her, both as a friend and our temporary captain, then you must tell her as soon as we sit down and rest. Velvet too, I believe."
"It goes without saying that I trust them!" the protest came. "And that's exactly my issue; I should be supporting all of you instead of adding to your troubles! As Blake's partner, I should be helping her with her self-esteem issues and the mission!" she exclaimed, stomping the ground.
Mismatched cyan eyes opened wide and for the first time since they entered the dome, Yang saw Weiss glare at her in fury "make noise like that again and I will make sure the eye is the least of your troubles."
"Sorry" they stood silent for a couple minutes, to double-check that no Grimm had heard the commotion and was trying to approach them. "I agree on that, by the way. That's why I am telling you to discuss it with Blake; because that's the proper way to help her lead the mission."
The tall girl nodded meekly "I will as soon as we sit down and have the time to. And apologize for thinking I shouldn't tell her, as well" a small honest smile appeared in both of their faces as she said that.
The smile was short-lived, however. Sounds of footsteps, rubble being thrown aside and hungry, ferocious breathing reached the two girls' ears. A veil of black smoke slowly descended, surrounding the block.
From the smoke dozens of red eyes glared at the two girls. Long clawed legs and arms supported the creatures' thin, humanlike torso. Their heads were covered with bone masks. A pair of black bat ears stood out from the top of their skull. Oh, how I didn't miss those things Yang thought.
But that wasn't the only menace that appeared. A tall figure, slightly covered by the mist accompanying the Ghouls turned around the city block's corner with a slow, sluggish movement that shook the ground.
It stood almost as tall as an ordinary Goliath, easily towering over the Ghouls as it walked on two long legs. It had long, clawed arms and its human-shaped head was akin to a black skull full of spikes and horns. A pair of cold, red eyes gazed at them behind a white-black bone mask.
The most notable characteristic, however, were the hundreds of Grimm heads that burst out of its body, staring at the girls with a mixture of horrified agony and unending malice, eyes and jaws dripping dark goo on the cracked pavement when the terrifying creature moved.
As dozens of predatory fangs opened, revealing only a pair of long red canines, Weiss and Yang shouted at the top of their lungs in an attempt to warn their teammates, both brandishing their weapons for battle.
-o—
A few minutes earlier
The diner was in a really bad shape. Footprints and shoeprints made of a disgusting mix of blood, flesh and food stains spread across the white tiles on the floor, accompanied by broken glasses and plate shards.
Cheap dining tables stood by the cracked, red-stained windows. Lots of smashed plates and rotten food were thrown aside, staining the plastic couches. Dried pools of blood and large claw marks decorated them.
A large work bench covered half of the store's front. Scratches and lots of blood traces were visible all over it. Tall stools were thrown aside like trash, broken and stomped with incredible ferocity.
"Shit!" Velvet hissed as the sound of a glass shard breaking under the sole of her boot echoed in the deadly silence like a fog siren. A couple steps away from her, Blake turned her head and sent her a harsh glare.
"Sorry" raising her torch to show her lips as she whispered the bunny girl apologized to her leader. Yellow shining eyes nodded and the cat faunus slowly walked to the cash desk, easily avoiding all the wreckage.
The cash machine was broken, soaked in blood and full of bloodstained money. Traces of human hands, desperately clinging to something, were visible all over the register. Blake fought back her urge to swear.
They didn't have a chance, did they she thought in melancholy. Her teammate's light fell on her- Velvet's way of asking for orders- and she quickly forced her usual emotionless and determined face to reappear.
"Check the inside, will you?" she asked as a matter of fact and drew her gun to cover for her temporary partner until the brunette passed by her and walked into the torn door that wrote 'staff room'.
After that, Blake walked around the desk, taking a good look behind the scarred bench. The macabre sight of blood splattered everywhere and red handprints desperately trying to climb over to escape made her regret it at once. She sniffed in sorrow, trying to not let Velvet hear her.
Here you are, she heard her own mind tell her in the middle of another slaughter and all that you care is for your teammates to not see you cry. How cute… she sarcastically reprimanded her own self.
Mind your own business! I am trying to do my best! She let her light fall on the floor, noticing the small bloody prints around the largest splatter marks. Ruby trusts me with this mission and I will not betray her trust!
Even the fact that you are here, trying to convince your very mind you are right, proves you wrong the voice continued. It was incredible how much her own voice could annoy her at times like this.
I honestly don't understand what Ruby and Glynda see in you- that is me- when you can't even convince your own self that you are up to the task, Blake. "Ok, that's enough" she took out one vial and sniffed it.
The relaxing aroma of cinnamon and vanilla filled her nostrils and ran up to her very core. Her ears perked on top of her head and a thin, satisfied smile appeared on her face. I owe you a lot, Ren she thought.
Feeling considerably better, Blake knelt closer to the horrifying remains and started thinking about the foot prints. They were human-sized and had obvious claw marks on them. Plus, they were bipedal for sure.
What's more, they seemed to be moving away from the bloody pools. Her mind made the obvious connection, one that seemed even likelier if she took Nyctos' presence in the area into consideration.
"Lots of blood and signs of struggle inside the staff room and the bath" Velvet walked out of the destroyed door. "No corpses though; there are not even remains of bones or body parts. That is very unusual" she said.
"Yet there is a proper explanation" the black-haired girl stood up from behind the bench and turned to stare at her fellow faunus. "Those poor fellows got eaten by Ghouls and then turned into Ghouls themselves."
Velvet just stood there. She didn't talk, or even weep. She just stared around, taking in the info. The impact of Blake's words was… "Why am I not drowning in sorrow?" she asked her leader "why I am just accepting it as if it's the most natural thing in the world, I wonder?"
The cat girl let her torch down and fixed her ponytail that had been a tad messed up by her searching around. "We have started getting used to it; it's kind of scary, come to think of it" she emotionlessly admitted.
"People shouldn't get that used to seeing corpses! People shouldn't try telling others it's natural for anyone to get used to seeing corpses!"
It felt like another lifetime when Ruby had screamed that very phrase at Headmaster Theodore of Shade. And yet, here were her friends proving her wrong, standing casually in the middle of a slaughterhouse.
It really left a bitter taste in their mouth, so Velvet decided to change the subject "there is something weird about the food and the state of decay it is, however" she pointed towards one of the food shelves.
"What do you mean?" slightly happy about the change of topic and ignoring the ever-present voice inside her mind, the yellow-eyed faunus walked next to the bunny girl, eyebrows raised in curiosity.
"The dome settled in two days ago; the food should have been spoiled, yes, but not that much. This bread has a week's worth of mold on it and I am sure it takes more than two days for dried beans to grow fungi."
"Now that you mention it" Blake turned and strode at the closest table. It was a wooden plank, actually, slightly laminated. Four screws held it in place- quite firmly, the girl could tell with a glance.
Blake, carefully and trying to not make a lot of noise, cleared the food and blood off a part of it. "There is enough mold on this plank for the sanitary inspectorate to have a field day" she announced at Velvet.
"There is no way they could afford this place to be that unhealthy; a lot of customers seem to have been frequenting it" the detective agreed. "That indicates the decay must have occurred recently somehow."
Perfect, Blake registered in her mind. Just another weird and seemingly irrelevant phenomenon that will come to bite us later. "It may have to do with the presence of magic; maybe Nyctos causes things to rot."
"Yeah" Velvet replied. "I think we can safely use this place for a hideout to catch a breath" her leader added, making the bunny girl open wide her brown eyes in shock. "Rest here? In that slaughterhouse? Why?"
The sudden questioning of her decision made Blake flinch "it's the most efficient way instead of searching around. We can clean it up, make a quick check-up in Yang's condition and state of mind and then leave."
"Blake…" her fellow faunus tried to find the proper words to voice her concern "if you think that either you or anyone of us can rest in here, then it's your condition I worry about; with all due respect that is."
The girl stared at Velvet "we have been forced to camp next to Grimm hives and hordes that could kill us in a few minutes more than once. When in Grimmwater, we rested in a graveyard surrounded by them."
"It's different; you were forced to-" "End of discussion, Velvet" the firm way Blake rejected her, made the brunette stop. "I have too much faith in all of you for me to accept that something like this can deter us."
There was a tense moment of silence before Velvet nodded "you are the team leader; also, I can't say no when you are flattering us like this, Blake" she tried to joke, but she only received a firm nod of agreement.
"Let's go get the others then" the cat girl turned around, doing her best to not let her teammate see her grit her teeth and clutch her chest as she took a step forward to the exit where Yang and Weiss stood guard.
And then, a series of growls and hisses coming from the street made their ears twitch in alert. As Weiss and Yang's shouts reached the inside of the store, the two girls had already begun dashing towards them.