Hello everyone! How are you doing? Hope you are all fine.
Chapter 123 is here and as always, I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks again for following/ favoring/ reading the story so far- it means a lot, including how awesome you are!
See you all next week in chapter 124. Until then, be well and have fun!
"Do we believe all of this?" Lumia paced up and down the opening in the middle of the library, her footsteps echoing in the dim-lit halls. Ruby was sitting next to the humid window, still holding onto Octavios' book.
"He said so himself; he may as well have been mad when he wrote those spells. Even worse, he may had been expecting someone to use them" the tall girl explained, earning a nod of skepticism from the brunette.
"I am not an expert in books, like Blake or Albus are" Ruby replied "but I think those words are genuine; he does sound quite remorseful and tired. And I know how hard it is to emulate such thoughts, Lu" she explained.
"If that's the case" Lumia crossed her arms beneath her chest and tapped her left elbow with her right fingers "then why would Avyssos conjure this book? Of all things, why include something potentially harmful to it?"
Ruby tried to think about it for a few minutes. Geez, I am so fed up with squeezing my brain like this! Think, Rose, think; why would a powerful Grimm like this ignore something like that? What sort of behavior has-
"Maybe it wasn't fully aware of the library's contents? Or wasn't in full control of its creation?" she finally proposed, eyes suddenly lighting up in inspiration "do you remember what you told us about Riverside?"
"Be more specific please" emerald eyes narrowed at her. "You said that an entity known as 'Cleaner' acted like it knew everything the human it was made of did, right?" She nodded "even the poor woman's wishes."
"Ren and Nora told us as well that Dr. Van Ochre's replica acted like it was a normal doctor all the times they brought Jaune there; otherwise visitors would notice. Not to mention nurse Pyrrha was the same age as they both remembered her to be" the silver-eyed reaper finished explaining.
"In other words, you mean it directly copies images and information out of one's memory? But we saw some of those beings evolve, like the nurse and Jaune's clone" Lumia countered "it should be easy for it to modify-"
"Not necessarily" Ruby cut her off "the nurse was the only one who could change her appearance, remember? The register said when she was alive she had a body altering semblance on her own. This is why I believe that Avyssos simply recreates things and works on them along the way."
"Mr. Red became the Caretaker so when recreating this place, Avyssos just remade all that it found in his memory like blindly applying a formula. This is what you are trying to say, am I right?" Lumia tried to summarize.
"More or less yes" she reached out to her bag and took out a small box. It was wrapped in shock-resistant plastic and had roughly the size of a dust case. She quickly opened it, under the ex-maiden's curious eyes.
The box contained a smaller rectangular wooden object, with a set of old-fashioned buttons on its top and an extending cylinder with a curved lens at its front side. "Is that a retro camera?" Lumia asked in surprise, seeing Ruby open her flashlight and pointing it towards the book.
"M-hm" Ruby cheerfully replied, as she started taking pictures of every single page in Octavios' book, taking two or even three copies of the ones that contained the runes and the instructions about the binding rituals.
"I knew that dust-powered electronics somehow fail inside Eldergrimm domain, so I decided to have an analog way to gather evidence. Professor Port is a huge fan of retro things and I asked him to lend me this camera."
"I understand but couldn't we just take the book with us?" The brunette's lips slightly pursed "this is plan B in case the book vanishes along with the rest of this place when we take down that monster" she explained.
"Color me impressed" being a full-fledged digital person, Lumia felt out of her element, but still stood in awe of Ruby's thoughtfulness. "Bear with it a little, Lu. It won't take long" she pleaded, taking another set of photos.
"Yeah, no problem" the black-haired huntress turned around and started patrolling the library for anything that caught her eye- like the sudden appearance of an open arch-styled stone door in the wall, for starters.
The opening was dark; her torch didn't manage to light even the closest to her parts as she took a couple steps towards it. There was a heavy smell like rot coming out of it. She turned around and called her friend.
"Hey Ruby!" silver eyes were raised from the camera "what do you make of this?" she pointed towards the opening and saw the girl's eyes open wide in shock. "What in the name of dust" the reaper put the book and the camera in her bag.
She then jumped off the chair and next to the Atlesian girl "its pitch-black and it smells funny" she wrinkled her nose. "Torches don't light it at all" Lumia raised one to show how the deep darkness stood unaffected by it.
At once, they both took out their swords. "I have an extremely ominous feeling about this door" the taller woman exclaimed. "Oh really? What makes you say that? Is it the abyssal darkness or the smell?" Ruby joked.
"Hahaha..." before Lumia could answer a laughter was heard from deep inside the black passage. It wasn't alien at all. It was a haughty, arrogant laughter; barely audible at this point and definitely a human one.
For some reason, it made Lumia's hair stand on edge. A slithering sound like something slimy and serpentine was moving, drowned the laughs for a moment, before they returned a tad louder. "It's coming closer."
"Fall back" Ruby instructed and they did so, retreating a few meters closer to the window. The laughter pressed on, now accompanied by the slimy sound. "It feels as if something is trying to emulate a woman's laugh."
"Yeah" Ruby commented "it wasn't clear at first, but I can hear it much better now" she added. A few tense seconds passed, until it stopped. Footsteps of someone running replaced both sounds. "What the dust?"
The footsteps became faster. The sound of heavy breathing accompanied them. A humming, cheerful sound joined them. It was so melodious that it sounded alien. The slithering returned- this time much louder.
"No, please... no!" a cry for help. The footsteps stopped. "NOOOO-" the blood-freezing screams of a woman begging for her life. A slimy sound and a disgusting crunch cut it off. And then the feasting began with the liquid sounds of flesh being torn apart and consumed in primal hunger.
"Are we-" Ruby audibly gulped "are we witnessing how the residents died when the island was overran?" she wondered, unable to avert her gaze from the endless void pit of wet chewing sounds and rotten smells.
"I don't know and I am excluding nothing" the reply came. Lumia tried her best to calm her nerves down- until the breathing, heavy and monstrous in ways she wished she would never have to experience, returned.
And the worst part of it was... "Hey, Ruby" she said "that didn't come from the opening." The addressed girl licked her parched lips "I know" she said "it came from the windows behind us" she gripped Thorn's handle.
Emerald eyes moved to the side of the taller woman's head as she tried to sneak a peek behind without alerting anything that was lurking in order to ambush them. She allowed her body to only slightly move away as well.
"Oh dust..." she whispered "there are large, blue-gray tentacles tracing all over the windows..." she tried to keep her voice as calm as possible "what do we do?" the sound of glass being slowly cracked made her heart race.
"Do you trust me?" Ruby, doing the same thing, saw the slimy, dripping appendages dancing macabre sigils on the window panels. A few of them were stained in fresh red blood and smudged the glass as they moved.
"Yes" "RUN!" not waiting to verify the exact limit of Red Mansion's glass works, Ruby burst forward, showing Lumia to follow her. The leader of LEAD ran after her, as the loud cracking sounds intensified behind them.
Their destination was apparent before even Ruby reached it; the only way out of this place was the pitch black opening of horrendous screams and putrid stench. Hesitating only for a moment, they dashed inside the void.
-o-
"Do you fear the dark, Ruby?" Yang had asked her when they were kids.
She didn't remember what she had replied then, but she was sure she didn't. Huntsmen were heroes. Huntsmen dispersed the dark, not fear it.
The empty corridor- if it was one- devoid of even a little trace of light and life put that bravery of hers in question. After a few seconds of running in the dark, she realized she couldn't see even her own body and stopped.
"Lu?" she asked in a tense voice "are you here?" "Yes" the girl replied at once, her voice being really close "but I can't see you; or anything else as a matter of fact. I can't even see the opening anymore."
"Yeah" slightly relieved, she wiped her forehead "could you please hold my hand or something?" the brunette asked, fully aware of her friend's dislike of such things. Surprisingly, Lumia complied and took her hand.
"It's ok' sorry for making you do this" Ruby rubbed the trembling girl's fingers. "Forget it; let's move before-"
A howling sound from their left sent them both in full alert. Ruby took out Thorn again and held it with her left hand while Lumia picked a knife from her belt. "Follow my pace" the reaper asked and she squeezed her hand.
"I don't fear the dark. Heroes always defeat it."
Footsteps echoed around them. Ruby waved her sword and for a brief moment thought she hit something, only for it to jumble away, its steps pounding on the floor and its humane, sadistic laughter filling their ears.
"They are toying with our minds" Lumia whispered, far calmer now that she had gotten used to Ruby holding her hand. "It's not going to work for them" the red girl spat. Someone laughed from the dark mocking her.
"What's with that splashing sound anyway?" the ex-maiden asked. "It's as if we are walking on a flooded floor." Now that Lumia mentioned it, Ruby realized that her boots truly did a splashing sound as she moved. She also noted that the mocking figures' footsteps inside the dark didn't.
"NOOOO!" out of nowhere, a woman's shriek slammed on their ears. The sheer intensity and horror of the screech made Ruby flinch and cup her left ear with her free hand. "Ow..." she whispered as her skull trembled.
"Please, no! Master, no! I served-AAAAAA!" the sound of crunching and chewing cut off the desperate screams. "You sons of..." Lumia hissed, but her words were cut off from a slithering thud followed by a heavy splash.
Wet droplets were sprayed on the girls' faces. They were sticky and had a heavy, sweetly-sick smell. Ruby rubbed them off and felt the metal taste fill her mouth as they dripped down her lips. "It's blood" she announced.
"Behold" an alien, guttural voice rose from the shadows "a nameless feast to your servants; the unholy remains of failed sacrifices." Its ceremonial manner and voice had an aura of authority about them, like it was singing or preaching to an uneducated mass.
As it finished talking, the shadows for the first time reflected forms. And not one or two. Ruby couldn't count how many exactly they were, but the pitch-black void suddenly was swarmed in hungry-looking deep red eyes.
How many were they, it was impossible to tell. If each pair amounted to a single entity, they had to be hundreds- even more maybe. The amount of Spectators she had seen in Cornfield paled in comparison to that horde.
"Consume the worthless. Pave the road for the selected ones" the alien voice once more commanded. As it did, a choir of primal howls, guttural moans and hungry screams coming from wet with saliva mouths erupted in eerie symphony.
And then, the swarm charged. Ruby and Lumia formed a back-to-back full defensive stance, ready to pummel anything that came upon them till the horde overwhelmed them or the monsters were slain.
Fortunately, they didn't have to. All monsters ignored the pair completely and dived in the darkness around. Before the girls could register what had transpired, the Grimm started feeding on something that had been there.
Wet and disgusting sounds of flesh being ripped and bones being chewed once more reached their ears, even though the sheer magnitude of this feast far outclassed the previous times in a disgusting and unnerving way.
Pants and gasps of ecstasy, combined with frenzied splashes and delirious movements surrounded the two huntresses. A vile feast of immense proportions, belonging to the bygone eras, was taking place before them.
"I don't fear the dark. I am here to protect others from it."
"Ruby" Lumia's voice barely sounded between the gut wrenching sounds of feasting. "This time it's my turn to ask you to trust me; will you?" she asked, her voice trembling in accordance to her fingers.
Silver looked where she knew emerald was. "I'll be right behind you" she grabbed her friend's hand once more and this time Lumia didn't flinch. "I will take you up on that" the tall girl forced a smile and started walking.
It truly was a nightmare. Holding each other's hands to not lose track and using the feasting eyes as indications about where the Grimm stood, the two girls carefully moved through the extensive slaughterhouse.
Their boots were getting sticky from the blood and other unmentionables they were glad they couldn't see. The atmosphere was sickening and the disgusting smell of rotten flesh massacred their lungs and stomach.
As they moved, a few sets of eyes broke apart from the group. Without making any noise, they rushed next to the huntresses, small red dots full of malice and primordial hunger hovered in front of their faces.
Yet, Lumia and Ruby remained still and calm. The last thing they needed right now would be to aggravate those things even more. Slowly as much as carefully, they moved again, ignoring how the eyes followed them.
"They seem like they are studying us" Lumia gulped "like felines that are watching their prey squirm." Ruby's eyes narrowed "I am shocked at their lack of presence, to be honest; they barely feel like they are here at all."
A couple more strayed from the feast and crept up to the two girls. Ruby clicked her tongue, as she almost felt one sniffing the back of her head. A subtle move forward set her away from the monsters proximity.
Thankfully, observe was they only thing the creatures did. Lumia led them between the horde, making quick cuts and rapid turns as if she followed a path between the monsters in places they seemed to not interfere with.
And then, a loud howl echoed inside the pitch-black void. One after the other, the gleaming eyes were averted from the girls' path and returned to their abhorrent feast, leaving alone them to trek the endless pit.
They began exchanging small talk to not lose track of their sense of time. They spoke of games and movies and they teased each other about Jaune and about Lumia's online friends and when would they meet them.
On occasion, they would feel splashes of thick, sweet-smelling goo fall on their backs and legs and they would try humor each other with stories of horror films. Maybe it was smart, maybe it was madness. It did the job.
The dreadful time passed and the two girls slowly passed the barrier and left the well-concealed sacrificial altar with the hundreds of Deep Ones who voraciously consumed the vile amount of human flesh that had been offered to them. In their middle, Piper's alien form continued chanting.
"I don't fear the dark. I fear what it leaves behind after it's gone."
-o-
She knew that at some point she lost consciousness. She was also aware that her memories were so much jumbled as she escaped that slaughter house, that she could barely form any connection to the outside.
How could she know while she didn't? Zero idea- she just did. One thing Ruby Rose had learned was that when facing the Eldergrimm one should sometimes stop thinking and start acting. And that's exactly what she did.
"Mmhhh..." she began acting by jolting up her fainted mind. She could feel dizziness and her head hurt so much she thought it would crack in half like a cookie at any minute. Thank dust, her brain seemed to work.
Her body was sore and stiff, but aside from that she could feel a soft, almost caring sensation spreading in her body and the back of her head. She tried to touch her clothes- and came into contact with soft fabric.
Ruby tried her best to open her eyes, but the blinding lights and eldritch green pulses hurt her silver irises. The only thing she managed to see was that she was lying down on the floor, wrapped in her own red cloak.
That thing on the back of my head must be someone's jacket or a folded set of towels she let out a pleased moan and slowly got up rubbing her eyes. Lumia took care of me; thank goodness, we both made it out of-
"Ruby!" surprise hit her jumbled mind as she finally managed to keep her eyeballs open enough to come face to face with the owner of this merry and worried voice; no other than Nora, who had run next to her in worry.
"Are you ok?" behind the ginger girl, Ren and Lumia seemed to be sitting down on the familiar by now wet granite floor. She averted her gaze to get some more time for her eyes to rest "I am fine somehow" she blurted.
She was fine, truly. And this is why when Nora came closer to her, the red reaper grabbed her hand and splashed a bit of Azure's anti-Grimm liquid on it, taking the redhead by surprise. She stared for a couple minutes at-
Nora's eyes narrowed in disappointment "that was not the emotional reunion I had in my mind" she groaned. Positively relieved, Ruby playfully stuck her tongue out "we already checked each other" the boy stated.
"And how was I supposed to know that?" Ruby protested, earning a full eye roll from the black-haired girl. "That is truth, I guess" Ren smiled at his leader, who dutifully kept listening to Nora's eloquent complains.
She rubbed her nape, got up with the cheerful girl's help and gave her a big hug. After that, she took a good look at their surroundings. Tall arches and cyclopean walls, soaking wet, decorated with carved abominations and writhed in blinding alien lights and miasmatic fog surrounded them.
"Let's relocate under this" she pointed to a relatively harmless looking column a few dozen meters away "and then we can take a breather and talk about our findings before I tell you of an idea I came up with."
Three sets of eyes opened wide in the sound of Ruby having another one of her makeshift plans, but all members of RRSN followed the silver-eyed girl as she carefully strode across the wet floor towards the small pillar.
-o—
"You guys saw a lot of freaky stuff" Nora commented after Lumia finished reciting their experiences to the couple. "In comparison to your ordeal, I feel almost lucky" Ren added to her declaration. The ex-maiden nodded.
"I can't be sure if anything of these is actually real or if we experienced a type of mental assault, but it was excruciating indeed" she replied. "Nah, it was real" sitting a couple meters away from them, Ruby cut her off.
"I checked my stuff while you talked" she elaborated "both Octavios Red's book and the photos I took are here" she took out the flesh-wrapped book, making Nora groan in disgust and Ren narrow his eyes at its cover.
"It's even worse than you described it to be" the turquoise-eyed woman commented before Ruby put it away. "Back on track; I am intrigued by this Piper Grimm a lot" the reaper said "you said you didn't see it again?"
"No" Ren affirmed "after it was called back and we heard Avyssos talking to it, the door vanished and we started looking around for you again. We did search the place for ways to make the gate appear again, but we had no luck." Nora nodded quite vividly "it's like it wasn't there to begin with."
"Like almost everything that we pass through" Lumia concurred. "Yes but this is far more important" Ruby countered "this is the first direct sign of Avyssos' presence we got since we first stepped in here" she explained.
"That's what we thought as well" the magenta-eyed boy told her. "Yes, but how are we going to follow a clue about a door we don't even know if it's there" Lumia argued again "we can't blindly search this whole place."
"As I said, I have an idea" their temporary leader told them, eyes still fully alert for danger "there is one thing in here that has been changing with a pattern we may be able to follow- and it's tied to the Piper."
"Um, Weiss? Could you please get out of Ruby?" Nora's eyes blinked a few times. The brunette smiled "sorry; I wanted to be dramatic" she let out a deep sigh "why don't we follow the demonic piping for starters?"
"The piping?" her teammates stared at her in visible interest "this weird and creepy as eff sound is the only thing that has been normally changing in this place. There are places of the temple where, as Ren said, you could hear it hammering your skull and others when you can't hear it at all."
"And you think it has a connection to the door or something" Nora asked. "She may be right; the sound was awfully powerful in that gate" Ren said.
"Not to mention you guys told me it was guarded by a monster that had in its back a series of bone-pipes. It was the same thing that stretched out the importance of sound in its worship" Ruby concluded her reasoning.
"That's a reasonable point; and the best lead by far we have right now" a quick nod from Lumia and Nora followed Ren's comment. "Let's go then" the silver eyed girl smiled brightly at her friends as she picked up her bag.
"Lead us back to the place you guys saw the gate, Nora" she announced. "From there, we shall let music guide our steps" she remembered a line from one of Weiss' favorite musicals and stopped for a brief moment.
We are getting closer; hope you guys are doing fine as well. Ruby let out another deep sigh and strode next to Lumia, behind Ren and Nora who had already started moving. Let's find that gate and tear it apart!