Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all fine.
Chapter 120 is here and as always, I hope you enjoy it!
Nothing more to say than thanking you for the xth time for following/ favoring/ reading the story. You are the best, all of you!
See you next week in chapter 121. Until then, be well and have fun!
Two bodies were on the floor, sitting with their backs on the door. Their chests were slowly moving up and down, hungrily gasping for air. Sweat dripped off their faces. Terror was evident in their eyes.
"I should have realized it" Ruby shut her eyes and leaned at the door. "I should have connected the dots; Octavios Red was too important a guy for Avyssos to just let him join the rabble" she exclaimed.
"How could you have known?" Lumia, chest heavily moving, replied. "I don't think one would normally piece the evidence together like that."
"Blake and Weiss would" she drank a little water. "I am neither Weiss nor Blake; sorry" she replied. "I am not saying you should be; I am just complaining about how stupid I feel when those two are not around."
"I understand" Lumia replied, removing her ear from the door "unless they can move in complete silence, which is possible, I can't hear anything following us." Ruby took a few short breaths and stood up.
They were inside a spacious room. The old mansion style was evident in here as well, with dark gray bricks forming the walls. Short arches made of the same bricks split the room in smaller areas like a medieval castle.
Light came from green roaring torches standing on the pillars and walls. The ceiling was a little taller than usual, forming triangles and arches as to add to the anachronistic feeling of the place.
There were large, fogged windows on the other side of the room. There was no daylight coming in from them, so Ruby concluded there was night still outside- or at least it was being simulated to look like it was.
Around them, covering quite a large part of the room stood tall, proud bookshelves. They were made of ornamental dark brown wood and had an antique looking, as if to accompany this entire place's aesthetics.
A couple work benches and a large desk could be seen by the windows, neatly ordered and properly equipped with ink, feather, parchments of paper and candles. Blake would love this place, the reaper smiled.
"Let me guess; this is Red Family library" Lumia accepted the brunette's help and stoop up next to her. "I didn't have a chance to see for myself, but if this place is observed by Octavios Red, it is possible" Ruby replied.
"We should then get going; we don't know how much time we have till something catches up to us" the tall girl made a motion to turn around.
"I am almost sure there will be no door when you try to leave" the lack of response from the ex-maiden confirmed the silver-eyed girl's theory. "I am not even commenting on that" her friend exhaled, turning back.
Ruby scratched the back of her head "I can see a few people squealing in the idea of being stuck in a library, but our position is bad. Like, it is really bad" she peeked around. "Let's try seeing if there is an exit here."
A quick check of the place revealed no visible doors. A more thorough search revealed no hidden ones either. After an hour of searching and trying to activate any hidden door, Lumia and Ruby sat on the desk.
"So" the brunette said after chewing some dark chocolate, courtesy of her friend "we are trapped inside a library with no visible exit." "Sounds like a video game, doesn't it?" the emerald-eyed woman commented.
"One of these puzzle-games, you mean?" she asked. "Where you have to satisfy a condition to leave?" "Yes; though right now I am very much tempted to demolish the wall and see what happens" Lumia replied.
"Hah" the reaper grinned "why don't we check the library first then? If we find any clues or ways out of here, we may not have to resort to the Yang Method" she cheerfully explained "we may pick some important info along the way too." Lumia sighed and nodded in approval.
"I just hate research when I can't use my laptop to speed up things" the tall woman complained. "It's fine; I hate research in all of its forms" Ruby stuck out her tongue and moved towards the closest bookshelves.
-o—
Most of the shelves were filled in old, tattered books. Leather covers, worn by the weight of ages past, squeaked as the girls ran their fingers over them. Thin layers of dust adorned the finely preserved literature.
Intent to discover as much as they could in order to figure a solution to their situation, both girls soon got lost in reading despite their previous statements. Time was lost on them- and they didn't even notice how.
"Those are pretty interesting books, but nothing on the Eldergrimm so far" dejected about their lack of success, Ruby commented. "If Octavios possessed such books, he wouldn't put them in plain sight" Lumia said.
"Sounds legit" the reaper murmured. "In that case let's split. You take the east wing and I will take the west one. We can search for any clues or small vaults we might have overlooked so far" she proposed.
And that was exactly what they did. Lumia soon ended up wandering inside a wave of long-forgotten tomes and extended, stern-looking bookshelves. She didn't like it here; the place was so old it irritated her.
Mistral Folklore… Geography… Math… Biology… Chemistry… that man was really studious, but his organizing skills are all over the place she thought, slowly moving the books while checking for misplaced ones.
All of a sudden, she stopped. There was one book that drew attention much more than normal- a large, thick book with a heavy brown cover.
She picked it up. The title was 'Mysteries of a Hidden World'. Now, this is interesting she pondered as she opened it. And then felt her interest plummet as she saw it was nothing more than a bug studies anthology.
"Who in their right mind makes a book about bugs?" she asked Ruby. "I have no idea, but I don't want to see it!" the red girl replied from afar.
Being in full agreement with her, Lumia proceeded to close it, when her eyes fell on something interesting. A blank page, more particularly page 12, greeted her as she quickly flipped through the book one last time.
Why would such a book have a blank- wait! Her confusion and interest grew with each page turning. She stood for a few minutes, carefully examining it, and finally realized there was more than one blank page.
What's more, the text seemed to be continuous without any chopped or erased parts, as if the blank pages shouldn't exist in the book to begin with! She tried pulling them out, but they were bound as normal.
Certain she had discovered something, the tall girl moved towards the desk where Ruby waited for her, a dejected look on her face. "I found something; and it is in the bug anthology" she explained to her friend.
"Of course it would" the silver-eyed girl snarled. Lumia showed her the blank pages and explained the whole mystery around them. That did seem to spring Ruby in action and she moved on her chair in thought.
"Could there be some hidden text in them?" she asked. "I thought of this, yes. Let's try showering them in light" she opened her flashlight and showered the pages, Ruby flipping between them as she did.
There was nothing to be seen, however. "What about water? I thing I have seen people on occasion hide texts that way" the red-caped girl proposed. Lumia took her flask and dripped one tiny little drop on it.
Again, there was no response. "Ok, this is gonna be hard" Lumia sat down. "Maybe not so much- I mean... shouldn't it be easy for someone who knows the way to do it?" Ruby jumped up and grabbed a torch from the wall. She brought it towards the table- and saw forms appearing on the blank pages, as if conjured by thin, invisible hands. She grinned in excitement and waited till the image stabilized before she moved on to the next one.
"I can't believe it worked" Lumia stared at the moving text in shock and awe, as the eldritch green light produced by the torch Ruby had taken from the wall conjured the final images they had been looking for. Hastily, the black-haired girl scribbled down the large letters and numbers appearing on the pages.
"I thought that we had to use something inside here in order to read it. If this is recreated by Mr. Red's memories, our torches are an item that wouldn't be accounted for" she grinned full of satisfaction and glee.
"Sounds legit" Lumia admitted, checking their notes. "So, we have 3L, 4R, 2L, 6L, 2R, 18S, 3B" she announced. "These sound like coordinates" Ruby commented.
"Yeah; L must stand for left, R for right and S for shelf, quite possibly. As for B" Lumia shook her shoulders "most likely book." "Mhm" RSSN's leader nodded in approval "let's check it out, counting from the door."
True to their thoughts, they soon found a small sealed vault behind the 3rd book in the 28th shelf after following the instructions. It was locked, but it was nothing a little force couldn't solve.
Lumia shone from behind, as Ruby knelt on all fours and tried to take a good look at what was inside. A few moments later, she stood up with a book at hand- a book that was wet and dripping despite being locked in the vault for Dust knew how long. She looked at Lumia staring agape.
The cover made the brunette's hair stand on edge. It was made of dark leather and bound with carefully carved spiral clips made of pure white bone. Very familiar runes formed blasphemous sigils on its surface.
"Careful; the leather is… ahem… throbbing. Like living flesh" Lumia did try to ease Ruby. And, as usual, she sucked royally at doing that. Silver pools opened wide in shock and disgust and her spine shivered.
"It's disgusting!" the reaper commented as they carried it to the desk. "No other choice" the taller woman responded "being hidden aside, it is so conspicuous that it has to contain important pieces of info."
"Yeah" Ruby combed her hair "important to make us even better and more suitable sacrifices for the cult." Lumia crossed her arms beneath her chest "I think we have already passed the point of no return by far."
Silver met emerald. "We are so deep in this; even if we lost all of our memories, I can feel it in my bones, Ruby" she gulped. "It's us or them. Like in the war, there is no way out." "I know- this is why I am mad."
She tapped her fingers "the others are fighting for their lives and what are we doing? Reading books and being scared by monsters; this is not my style at all" she spat "and it grinds my gears to no fucking end."
Lumia took a thoughtful expression "do you want me to put it back and try blowing up the wall then?" she asked. Ruby let out a hearty, loud laugh- until she realized her friend was being totally serious about it.
Remembering how eccentric Lumia's sense of humor was and how little common sense in regards to their job the girl exerted, she pointed at the book "let's check this out first and then we can talk about it, ok?"
"Yes" they stretched out their arms- and pulled them back at once. As if sensing their intent, the book's cover pulsed and shook violently, dark flesh stretching out trying to avoid their touch. They exchanged stares.
"Ok, I am not accepting losing to a book!" fighting the disgusting feeling away, she grabbed the book. It throbbed in her arms, squirming like a maddened infant. She firmly held it in place and then opened the spiral.
All of a sudden, she felt the item ease and its flesh return to what one could describe as normal leather feeling. "Did it- calm down?" the ex-maiden wondered. "Please don't ask this as if it is a living being!"
Begrudgingly and reluctantly, Ruby took a deep breath and started to read. "Fortunately, it is in the common language and not some sort of ancient scribbles" she commented. "Let's see what it has to say."
-o—
"Even now, as I grab my pen to write these lines, I find myself astounded by how little humans know. It shouldn't be surprising of course, seeing as me too is still quite ignorant of the subject. Quite the madness it is."
Ruby looked at Lumia. "He sounds like he is sulking." "Or being in deep regret about something" the taller girl commented.
"Of course, it goes without saying that this is humanity's one way of being able to coexist with such nightmares. It is quite fascinating how we, as a species, have the ability to completely ignore things that don't directly affect us. Could this be our source of strength? Possibly yes.
If that's the case, then... the one who is deep into madness must be me. It sounds reasonable, after all. Who in their right mind would choose to delve into the den of unfathomable horror on their own like this?
Who would choose to spend fifteen years of their lives dealing with the horrors of the deep, if not a madman? And even more, after all this time, still having barely managed to scrape the surface of what the monstrous entities known as Eldergrimm are fully capable of?
My name is Octavios Red, and I am a sinner. I am recording my thoughts in this cursed book, as a last testament to my life. The date is April 17th of year 74 and I am sure to not be of this world much longer.
That is a mistake. Depending on how my twisted, alien Master chooses to carry my 'reward' I may be of this world for an eternity. I dread to think of what abominable fate worse than death It has in store for me.
But I deserve it. As much as madness grabs me with every breath I take, I still understand that I deserve anything that happens to me. I cast a curse on this island, on its kind people, and now I pay the price. If only- if only I could be the only one to do so, I would be happy in my last days.
I can't be sure I will ever be able to feel happiness again, or to even be able to talk to someone like a human being- like myself. To you who are reading this; I am glad you found my notes, horrible the cover may look.
I am Octavios Red, and that book is my legacy. Should they manage to survive the curse, I want you to return it to my children. Elia, Alizar or my little son Robus- if you could do it, I would really appreciate it."
"What a grim irony" emerald eyes narrowed in sorrow. Ruby wiped a tear off her eyes. The image of Cinder, bloodied and smiling as she requested Ruby to kill Salem and end the war, appeared in her mind.
"I regret to say, it was gold that started my descent into madness. Indeed, I am aware how cheap it sounds. Of all the things that could bring me to this island for the first time, it was the rumor about gold that did the trick.
I accepted the locals' hospitality, Charlotte's even more if I am allowed to add, but chose to ignore their warning about the cursed place, as they called the tunnels leading into the bowels of the island. They said that even Grimm avoided them. As I said, I was foolish; mad even.
I will not blame it to fate, no. Fate had nothing to do with it; it was greed, pure and simple and idiotic human curiosity that led my footsteps down that accursed well- and the unnamable monstrosity called Avyssos that had been imprisoned inside it for untold eons.
Thinking back, I am sure that if I wasn't mad when I first braved the deep temple, I became for sure when this alien abomination first turned its gaze at me. I felt its wrongness... its abhorrent, unnatural existence.
I lost it. There is no other explanation for it. There is no way a sane person would choose to communicate with a being older than the human race, whose very existence negated theirs. But I did exactly that.
I let it talk to me. I let it offer me riches and power beyond my wildest and most ambitious dreams. In exchange for a few drops of my blood, I signed a contract with it. No, not a contract; I signed the island's doom.
It was a few years later, when a man called Bistre Woodrock visited me, that I realized the true meaning of my actions. My blood, the symbol of life I had so foolishly offered, had cursed everything I cared for.
Signing this oath with the monster called Avyssos made me a cultist of the Elders and bound the whole island- my beautiful wife, my beloved children and the joyous villagers who had accepted me as their lord- to the curse of eternal service to the Eldergrimm and their vile cause."
"Good God" Lumia said. "He accepted a contract to this thing for gold? All this time, it was just for that?" she furrowed her eyebrows. "As he said, he was young and naive- I think I can slightly understand him."
"How come?" The reaper sighed "he was promised power and money to live a happy life with the woman he loved without worries. It is a rather tempting offer, I think."
Lumia's glare didn't soften "it's not an excuse, no matter what." "No, but among all the cultists we have met so far his behavior is the most human one I've seen; I can hardly blame him for this" Ruby explained.
"There has to be a way. That's what, in my youthful naivety, I said. The man laughed, as if it mattered little to him. 'Feel free to try, dear friend. I am eager to see the result' he replied. And that's exactly what I did.
Fifteen years. That's how much I spent day and night researching, travelling and studying on the matter. With my powers, I captured as many Grimm as I could and studied them with the little time I had.
I went after every rumor, every story and lore about the cult and its abominable masters across Remnant. I even attacked Salem's agents and spent weeks searching in the abandoned temples of the Badlands.
My findings... I wish I could find the strength to destroy them. I pray that no one will ever understand them." Ruby remembered the books Blake discovered in the mansion and shivered.
"I am a madman. Now that I know even more, I am beyond salvation. How did the God of Darkness even think to create such abominations? I can't focus enough to make a coherent sentence now. Charlotte is lost to those things... my last hope are my children now. If they- I digress.
There are eleven of those monsters called the Eldergrimm, or Elders as we in the cult call them. Can you imagine it? Eleven! I can't even wrap my head around the things one can do and there are ten more of them!
They have phenomenal power and vast magical resources they gain from the pools of death that were used in their creation. I have no idea how the God formed them, but their existence is an anomaly in its own.
When the stars are wrong, they barely exist as more than a concept. In their sleeper state, they pollute the earth and curse the very land they are sealed in. They are like poison, seeping deep into Remnant history.
When the stars are right, however, they are natural disasters. Until the day I am writing this, there no person in Remnant has come even close to destroying them. Even Salem failed to properly end their existence."
"That's rich" Lumia hung her head. "We knew that already of course. At this point I think he just wanted to vent somewhere" Ruby commented.
"But even if they cannot be destroyed, they can be contained" both girls exchanged a look, eyes opening wide in a spike of interest. "Funny enough, it was Salem who showed us the way. Quite the irony, I know."
"Oh, shit!" Ruby couldn't help but swear when her silver orbs saw pages full of runes, chanting ceremonies and carvings that, even in their primitive form, resembled her best friend's glyph semblance.
And not just one- two, three, ten... countless. Almost half the book was dedicated to the strange patterns and arrays. "He- is that what I think it is?" in a rare display of astonishment the ex-maiden asked her leader.
Instead of answering to Lumia's question, the brunette kept reading
"This is a magic array that tricks the Elder's core into believing the position of the stars has been swapped, therefore thinking the time to return to the land of the living hasn't come yet.
If properly applied, it forces the Elder back in hibernation for as long as the spell works, hopefully enough time for its awakening conditions to pass. It is a crude and amateurish version of what Salem used on them.
Of course, it is not enough on its own. The Elder itself must be in a state weakened enough to be sealed and there are numerous components that have to be used in order to carry the ritual- even then, you may fail.
You will ask me; why didn't you do it? The answer is simple. I haven't found out how to do the whole process yet. And, unfortunately, it is too late already. Leonardo, that bastard... I asked him to protect us...
What am I saying? Even now, I refuse to accept the truth. Even now, as my wife's disfigured body is resting in the family grave and my children are all weeping in their rooms, I refuse to accept that all this is my fault.
Since Charlotte chose death than dishonor, my nights have become dull. I can't look my children in the eyes now. How could I? What am I supposed to tell them? That their father is a sinful monster? That I have-
It has already been a month. Sailors and fishermen are vanishing and the villagers all talk of the mysterious storms that engulf the island. The new Grimm attacks have driven them to desperation. But I alone know.
The circle must continue. I failed to break it. I didn't even have a chance to shake it. I only managed to serve it, perhaps even more than Bistre or his friend Maize. Lionheart, whom I confessed my sins to, betrayed me.
I know they will come for us. I know we are alone. I already asked Bistre to help my children, the only good thing I have brought in this world, away from here. I told the villagers I have a plan to let us all survive.
I didn't tell them that our survival shall be a fate far worse than death. The people sing my praises. They say I am a strong man and my family should be proud of how brave I act and how calm I am. They don't understand me at all.
For the past month, since I was asked by my wife to kill her twisted form, I look my face in the mirror every night and see a monster with dark flesh and dripping, slimy tendrils. My future haunts me already.
I am not calm- I have simply resigned.