Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all fine.
I was sick this past week, so my mind is a tad jumbled, but I managed to finish chapter 124 in time. As always, I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks again for being here, following/ favoring/ reading the story. You are all awesome and I am grateful to all of you!
See you again next week in chapter 125. Until then, be well, stay healthy, and have fun!
"A sentient weapon that assimilates form and mannerisms according to its wielder's desires..." Weiss' words trailed off as the white girl got lost in her thoughts, walking next to Blake as BLWS reached the bridge's end.
Battered and hastily bandaged, the four girls carefully walked across the paved road. Velvet was, as always, guarding the rear and Yang moved in the middle of their formation, Cherry's unconscious body in her back in a piggyback ride.
The green hue from Antares' pulsing light was reflected on their skin and the Moroas menacingly howled far above their heads. Despite that, the fox girl's barrier seemed to hold as no Grimm had attacked them yet.
"Ruby's gonna be so jealous!" the blonde chuckled "I can see her almost faint from awesomeness when she sees it!" the cat girl's ears perked up. It was nice to hear them chipper and in higher spirits that before.
"I am sorry I can't show her to you" she said to her alabaster friend "but it turns out Eidolon consumes much more stamina than I expected it to and I want to preserve it for later." Weiss nodded "it goes without saying."
"Yeah, we can check out Eida after we finish the mission" her partner said. At once, her eyes opened wide and she turned her gaze towards the brawler "who is that 'Eida' you are referring to, exactly?" she asked.
"Eidolon is a pretty crappy name in my opinion" Yang continued "we can call her Eida instead. It's shorter and easier to use in combat." Blake felt a shiver run down her spine and narrowed her eyes at her best friend.
"We are not giving my aunt's name to my weapon" she then turned back at Weiss and they both picked up the pace, while discussing details about the weapon and its capabilities. Yang chuckled and Velvet smiled in exaggeration.
The terrain slowly changed as they left the bridge and the canyon behind them. A wooded slope, slightly covered in green mist, spread between the huntresses and the observatory. The road leading there was paved with asphalt, of course, but the lack of vehicle made that detail irrelevant.
"Ten minutes break to catch our breath" Blake led them under a large oak that seemed to attract less fog than the rest. "After we start climbing up, I don't think we will have many chances to rest, so make the most of it."
Immediately after that, Velvet climbed up the tree and sat on top of a big branch, scoping the area around. Blake smiled at the ever-vigilant faunus, sat with her back to the oak's trunk and started cleaning Eidolon's blade.
On the other side of the tree, Yang tenderly let Cherry down and then sat next to her. Weiss moved slowly and cuddled on Yang's lap "how are you feeling? Does it itch or hurt more?" she asked, trying to mask her worry.
"As I told Blake at least ten times, no. It doesn't hurt at all after I knocked Cherry out" Yang caressed her fiancee's belly, earning a pleased purring sound from her "whatever this thing is, it reacted to her power."
"She said so, didn't she? That you are both blessed by the same being or something" Weiss nuzzled at Yang's nape "you do know what that means; this eye has something to do with Grand Mother, Yang" she whispered.
"Yeah" the brawler let out a deep sigh, making Weiss feel her chest move up and down "I have no idea what it wants from me and-" she stared at the cultist's unconscious body "she is unable to help with it right now."
"Yang..." her voice trailed off, becoming even lower "I was hoping it would be something we could fight given the right time and effort; but this is..." she whimpered "how can I protect you from that godlike beast?"
"Weiss..." she tightened her grip and kissed the top of her head "I am so afraid for you... I- I can't even think what I will do if this thing- if" "Baby!"
She cut her off, whispering to her ear "I am afraid too" she kissed the pale girl's cheek "but I am still here. I am still me and I can still stand and fight as much as I did before. I have all of you; I am not letting it get me."
"We aren't letting it get you either" Blake's cool voice sounded from her resting place, making Weiss blush and Yang chuckle. "Thought you were taking a catnap" she joked, earning three disgruntled groans.
"Bad and old-fashioned puns aside, it goes without saying that removing this eye from your hand is our top priority after we put an end into this operation" the cat girl added "we are not losing you to this abomination."
A small laugh came from the tree above "allow me to say it feels great to hear you talk like this again, Blake; you had me scared back there for a few minutes." Weiss wiped her eyes trying to hide her embarrassment.
"I know and I am really sorry" a pair of yellow eyes stared at their purple reflection mirrored on the magical weapon's surface "I still believe that I am not yet worthy enough to stand at the same place like you all do."
"Seriously?" still trying to conceal her embarrassment with annoyance, Weiss' voice slightly rose. "Yes; but I can't be using it as an excuse" their team leader countered "feeling bad about myself doesn't justify giving up on the few things I treasure more than my life" she announced "I mean..."
"The only thing I am feeling sorry for" Yang cut her off, still gently rubbing Weiss "is that Rubes is not here to listen to that; she would squeal and then demand you to lend her Eida for compensation" she added smiling.
"Funny thing is" Blake decided to ignore the atrocious nickname "I can so easily picture Ruby doing that." "Pfff" "hahaha" "hehehe" they all broke into small laughter, trying their best to lift up their exhausted spirits.
"I am exceptionally intrigued in her too" Weiss admitted "I want a chance to examine her when we are back, if the guys allow me to use the lab." The cat-girl pondered about it for a second "if she is ok with it, I am too."
"Between her, our already existing awesomeness and my new power, we may have a very good chance to take down that bastard Woodrock" Yang chuckled and fist pumped in the air, making Weiss groan in displeasure.
"I would rather you don't use that thing more than absolutely necessary" the petite woman asked. "I second that; we have no idea what effects it may have on your body- or mind" Blake emphasized the last word.
"I got it, yes" Yang raised her arms in mock surrender "but if the situation calls for it I will not hesitate, just so you know" she added. "Not all ends justify the means, Yang; that thing may cause more harm than good."
Lilac stared up to the branch from where Velvet had just spoken "the fact that we stood lucky with Blake's weapon being so cooperative, doesn't by any means give us the right to use anything weird that comes our way."
Yang groaned in displeasure, but Weiss turned around and pecked her in the lips "we will deal with it later, as Blake said. But please, promise you won't use it unless it's absolutely necessary to, sweetie" she requested.
"Gee..." Yang kissed her back "how can I say no to that?" "You can't" the pale girl kissed her once more and then left her lap as soon as she heard Blake stand up "sorry to be that person, but break time is over" she said.
"Of course" the ex-heiress helped Yang stand up. The blonde then picked Cherry in her back again. Velvet landed next to Blake "there is nothing of importance to be seen ahead; just a paved road flanked by trees and fog."
Up in the distance, the Moroas screeched one more time, as if to remind the huntresses of their presence. "I am getting a strange feeling about this place; it seems way too normal for where it is" the cat faunus spoke.
"When normal is considered strange; are you picking lines out of books now?" Blake raised an eyebrow and Yang broke into a toothy grin. "Just get moving and be extra careful" she turned around and started walking.
-o-
"I take it back; this place is hauntingly creepy indeed" after a few minutes of walking along the silent road, with tall trees and fog-covered bushes accompanying their climb towards the planetary, Yang broke into shivers.
"This is" Velvet took aim with her Crescent Replica. "That level of silence is so normal it ends being abnormal" she concluded. "Forget the Grimm; I'm not hearing any critter or bug at all." "No birds either" Blake added.
The thin layers of fog slowly hovered around, masking the tall bushes and thick tree trunks. The forest, completely silent and wreathed in the gray-green mantle, surrounded the women like a suffocating winter blanket.
Even the Moroas' cries had been dulled. The abhorrent screeches they had been hearing since they had moved on the bridge suddenly vanished as if the fact they couldn't see the monsters affected their hearing as well.
And the most aggravating thing of all was the monotonous, unchanging road they slowly climbed towards the observatory. "How can a manmade path be this dull? Even the bushes and trees look similar!" Yang groaned.
Weiss, a magical rune glowing in her hand to provide light to the others, stared around her. "It is rather worrisome; there are no signs, traffic posts or even landmarks around. And the air... feels like it's trying to choke me."
"This is similar to the feeling I got in the cemetery when chasing after the Jaune Grimm" Velvet commented "it lacks in raw malice, but the aversion to life is here and even more potent" she tried to further explain.
Blake moved a little ahead of the others. Her eyes were open wide in full alert, trying to counter any attacks the denizens of this place might have in stock for them. If there are any denizens here to begin with, of course.
They kept moving. The uphill road turned to the left- the very first mark they found since they had started ascending. Fog was getting thicker as they turned; claw-like branches hovered inside it, reaching out at them.
Velvet is right Blake thought. This place lacks the malice an Elder seems to radiate, but the eerie atmosphere persists. Behind her, she saw her fellow faunus turning her head left and right, trying to remain in full alert.
The road kept climbing and they continued. The suffocating feeling got even more intense at this point. The fog was not too dense yet, but it still gave cover to distorted nightmares and non-existing terrors of their mind.
I am so glad I made up with you, she thought as she tapped Eidolon in her belt this place would drive me crazy if I had this weight in my heart- she jumped in her feet, when she suddenly felt a strong tug in her shoulder.
She turned around and came face to face with Yang's lilac orbs staring at her, open wide in anxiety. "My hand itches; a lot" she said, pointing at the fog cloud ahead of them "there's something crazy up there, kitten."
Blake gulped. That newly acquired sixth sense of Yang's was questionable, but it had saved them a couple of times already. And, truth be told, there was a wave of uneasiness creeping up her spine as she looked ahead.
"Assume triangular formation with Yang in the middle. I will be the front one" she took Envelop out and raised it, seeing all her friends getting into position and readying their ranged weaponry for combat.
They slowly advanced, giving their eyes as much time as possible to get adjusted to the cloudy atmosphere. A few branches appeared at first, tall and curved like huge bird talons. She got the sudden urge to cut them off.
To be honest, she felt that something was fundamentally wrong with this place even before Yang confirmed it. The suffocating air became stale and crisp with every step she took. She looked back; her team was tense too.
"For some reason" Weiss exclaimed "the fact I can't see the green pillar unnerves me even more right now." Blake nodded. She knew there was an unnatural reason for that, since they couldn't actually- "what's that?"
As she heard those words leave Yang's mouth, all of Blake's body tensed. She motioned them to stop and took a couple steps ahead. There was a form in the mist indeed; it was medium sized and seemed to be floating.
Everyone felt a horrible chill going up their spine. They froze in place and glued their eyes on the figure's outlines. They couldn't see its face or any other features, but they were sure they saw pure white fabric billowing in the non-existent wind. The fog hovered around it, as if cloaking its form.
"Are there any known ghost Grimm?" Blake heard the lilac-eyed girl ask. "I only know of the Geists, but this is too big to be one" Weiss replied. "This can't be; ghosts aren't real!" Velvet protested. Blake sighed deeply.
"You are still saying that after all we've been through?" the cat girl took a deep breath and grabbed Nightfall tighter. "Cover me; I am taking a closer look" she announced, making everyone give her a wide-eyed stare.
"Be careful, will you?" Yang asked her as Weiss and velvet took out their weapons. The figure remained motionless, observing them from the fog clouds, as if waiting for the mortals to set foot inside its ghastly domain.
Fighting the goosebumps spreading at her body, Blake slowly and steadily advanced towards the figure. She took one step at a time, yellow eyes fixed on the pure white figure haunting the otherworldly, gray passage.
Her heart thumped like a power motor. Her palms felt sweaty. She turned her head around and saw the stern yet worried faces of her comrades. I haven't moved as much as I thought, have I? She chastised herself.
Returning her focus on the apparition, Blake took a couple nimble steps at once and stopped, trying to see even better with her faunus vision. She did notice the outlines of a human body, horribly twisted and deformed.
Oh, fuck. She took few more steps. The rotten flesh, covered in thin green lines of eldritch miasma spread out in tortured angles from a white and bloodstained torso. Oh fuckfuckfuckfuck... dead, void eyes gazed at her.
"Blake, maybe-" she jumped in place and hissed. "Don't talk now! You may aggravate it!" Weiss shut her mouth and raised her palms in apology.
Despite her fears, however, the figure remained unmoving. It just stood there, hovering mid-air in the passage's sideway, under a towering oak's canopy, its head lowered and hands stretched out like- wait, what the?
All of a sudden, Weiss Yang and Velvet saw their friend stop, tilt her head forward as if trying to pinpoint something and then run towards the ghost at full speed. "Blake!" casting all fears aside, they ran after her in worry.
They got closer, eyes opening wide and blood freezing in their veins. The cat girl halted her advance and stopped just in front of the abhorrent pale figure, while lowering her weapon. "Blake! What in dust's name are you-"
Weiss' words died in her throat when they got close enough to notice the same thing the black-haired beauty had. She turned and looked at them in sorrow while standing next to the mist-covered, white-clad eerie figure.
It was the body of a man, clad in a bloodstained lab coat, tied up in an oak and twisted in a disgusting way. His face was staring at them with eyes open wide in terror and his impossibly rotten flesh was carved in runes.
Same runes spread out of the body. Using his blood as material, someone had carved them on the oak's trunk and the ground around it. A faint yet powerful feeling of unease hit them as they stepped closer to the tree.
Yang furiously gritted her teeth. Velvet lowered her head in sadness. Weiss walked next to Blake who had knelt next to the oak's thick roots.
"Well look at that" the faunus showed Weiss her findings. It was a small idol made of charcoaled black wood, depicting a humanoid Grimm with a set of long clawed arms. A set of badly-made bat wings were on its back.
Hastily painted red and white highlights marred its face and body. Carved runes of green eldritch color ran over its torso- the only elaborate part of this twisted parody of a child's doll. Weiss made a face of pure disgust.
"Whoever made it has questionable taste and non-existent skills" she said while sparing a gaze to their left, where Velvet and Yang examined the poor man's hanging body, careful enough to not disrupt its current state.
"It follows the pattern of strange religious idols in every Eldergrimm place of activity" Blake replied, sensing approval from her magic sword. "Unlike the previous ones, though, this must have been made quite recently."
"Woodrock's work then" Weiss agreed "or Cherry's for that matter." The black-haired girl nodded and they both turned their gaze towards their teammates. "Did you find anything important, Velvet?" Blake asked her.
The bunny faunus, clearly downtrodden, pointed at the corpse's neck. "I may be no forensics expert, but the only visible wound is a large gush on its neck; he was carefully sliced and drained of his blood" she explained.
"Safe to say, Bistre used this guy for some weird magical ritual of sorts?" Yang asked. "Something like that, yes" Weiss pointed at the trails of runes across the fellow's body "he was used as a" she audibly gulped "medium."
"Medium?" Lilac and yellow narrowed at the alabaster girl. "It's the same principal as my glyphs; while they work on their own as well, combining them with an energy source provides additional capabilities" she replied.
"I use dust as my energy source, which creates all the abilities you have so many times seen me create. He, on the other hand-" Yang gasped "that bastard used this fellow as an energy source for his magic?" she roared.
"He possibly used him as a reference point to anchor his barrier" the pale girl continued with her explanation. "What are we waiting for; let's tear it down at once!" She cracked her fingers and took a step towards the body.
"Wait, Yang!" Blake reached out and grabbed her partner's shoulder. The tall woman turned at her leader with a mix of annoyance and surprise. "I am not sure messing with it is a good idea at this point" she exclaimed.
"Wait; we can't leave him like this!" Velvet protested standing beneath the body "he deserves to rest at least!" Blake acknowledged her protests with a flick of her head. "I know but just listen to me please" she pleaded.
"We know nothing about how this works or what it needs him for. Heck, we don't even know what this barrier exactly do save for what Cherry has said" the cat faunus explained.
"If she was being honest, what would be the first thing to happen if we remove that person and deactivate it at once?" Weiss' eyes opened wide in recognition "the barrier containing Nyctos could break" she replied.
Yang rubbed the back of her nape and sent a side glance at Cherry, still in an unconscious state in her back. "I don't like this at all, Blake" the bunny faunus narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists in sadness.
"For what's worth neither do I, Velvet" she countered "as soon as Cherry wakes up we will get her to help us with it, one way or another" she said as she moved past the tree "let's go; we are barely on schedule now!"
"We have a schedule?" Yang ran next to her. "Since the moment our fox friend said Bistre is waiting for the right moment to awaken that thing" a quick response from Blake came "I'd rather not let him take his time."
They continued their ascension in the fog-hugged woods. Despite the lack of Grimm in the area, the deadly ambience and the lack of noise made for unsettling scenery. And that was before they started coming across even more human corpses and unholy symbols spreading in their path.
Almost all of them were scientists and engineers; Antares' staff and tech support Velvet assumed. Their bodies had all been ceremonially cut with a single strike and then placed in particular stances in the trees and road.
Weiss had confirmed the carving of elaborate magical runes on all their bodies. The sheer accuracy and efficiency of the carvings was harrowing. Bistre Woodrock hadn't allowed even one drop of blood go to waste.
"It's incredible how inhuman his method is; and how meticulous he is in carrying it out" the pale girl told Yang as they left another corpse behind.
"We are talking about the same person who was behind most of the cultists we fought" Yang's voice took a serious tone. "He was the guy who recruited Alizar, Cinder, Cherry and Carmel, remember?" she asked.
They stopped for a few moments as Blake checked out a strange pattern carved on a tree trunk- a deformed skull with protruding canines and a pair of bat-like ears. She turned around and shook her head in disgust.
Finally, after a long walk that felt like it took ages, the four girls burst out of the woods and came across Antares observatory. Like escaping a finely-woven veil, they stepped out in the open hillside gasping for air.
The tall, two-story building stood as magnificent as ever, despite the tall eldritch pillar of green miasma that shot up to the heavens from the main hatch. It was unearthly powerful, yet let out a feeling of impending doom.
Observing it made Yang uneasy. Weiss clenched her chest and took a deep breath to steel her mind. Blake felt the surroundings being dimmed by the light, growing the shadows stronger instead of chasing them away.
In the long distance, hovering above the city yet always dancing on top of their mist cage of magical energy, the Moroas continued their horrifying shrieking. Figures of pure malice stared at them in contained hatred.
Around the observatory's entrance, six more people were ceremoniously placed, bodies stashed like giant runes on the wet, misty grass around the facility. Their flesh glowed with the same alien magic energy as the pillar.
"Just how many people will that person kill until he is satisfied?" Velvet clenched her teeth in anger. Blake gently placed her gloved hand on the brunette's shoulder. "We are stopping him" she said, earning a fierce nod.
Weiss, on her own part, slowly examined the area as they moved past the corpses. The magical energy slowly surged from the area as if the bodies were draining the whole hillside of it and then flowed inside Antares.
Is Woodrock draining the whole place of power to feed the pillar? The white-clad girl carefully moved behind Blake who was leading the team through the unnaturally ruined observatory garden towards the gate.
"Magic is so thick here that I can almost taste it" Yang groaned. Blake gripped Envelop tight, having stowed Nightfall away for now. "Careful Blakey" the blonde said as her friend opened the front door.
Wordlessly, they burst inside the main hall and took defensive positions at once, Blake and Velvet taking cover and aiming while the Xiao Long couple stood by to defend them in case of an ambush.
That whole maneuver took a couple seconds. Immediately after that, the whole place got swallowed up by pitch-black darkness, encasing the girls in a cloud of horrid goo that snuffed out even Weiss' magical lights.
The last thing Yang managed to see before their vision was completely devoured by the alien ichor was a triangle-shaped head covered by a pale white bone mask furiously staring at them from the ladder above.