Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all fine.

Chapter 148 is here. As always, I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you once more for being here, reading/ following/ favoring the story. You are all amazing and I am so grateful to all of you!

As I mentioned before, this week is Easter in Greece, so I won't be writing due to vacation. Thus, I am going to upload chapter 149 on May 4th instead of April 27th. Until then, I wish you all a Happy Easter; be well and have fun!

"I'm so sorry" Ruby broke the kiss and let out a deep sigh of frustration, climbing her body off Jaune's and sliding next to him on the sofa. "I am not in the mood" she averted her gaze in shame, buttoning up her shirt.

The boy hastily closed his pants and turned at her, gently caressing her right cheek "don't apologize; I understand if you are afraid of me after all that happened." She jumped up "I don't fear you; I fear for you."

"Ruby…" "Yang too, and Ren with Nora of course" she continued. "I fear for Lumia and Velvet, Weiss and Blake and Glynda as well. I fear for all of you- even though Yang is the most urgent priority right now."

"Please look at me" he used a calm tone, yet his request was as decisive as it needed to. A pale face, gleaming in pent-up tears turned around, shining in the pale moonlight. He leaned and kissed the tip of her nose.

"You have been exposed to horror way too much, Ruby. It's only natural to be afraid of it; it makes you the amazing heroic normal girl we know and love" he whispered next to her lips. She gave him a quick peck.

"It's not only the exposure" she admitted. "During the war, we fought so many enemies- powerful Grimm that could tear cities to ruins; villains with immense power like Cinder and Safira who could destroy armies."

She pecked him again "back then, I knew what I had to do. Fight them and defeat them for us to survive. As long as we didn't die, we still had a chance to fight back." She rubbed her nose on his "this one is different."

Ruby lowered her face, cheek still being caressed by Jaune "these terrors take thousands of shapes and forms; things I can't even imagine or try prepare for. It feels as if they hide in every shadow" she stared around.

Jaune didn't interrupt her. He had always been a good listener and was surely not going to change it right now "I can't even go for a walk by the sea anymore… I look at the waves and think what is looking back at me from below the water. I even scared Dad a few days ago." "Well, I do-"

"And don't get me started with the stars!" she took a quick look at the pale moon and buried her eyes at his chest "I can't think of stargazing any more without remembering of- of- that day…" she whimpered.

Jaune hugged her tightly and kissed her hair "when that goo devoured me… I fought as strongly as I could… only for a moment… it was but a single brief moment… that I thought death might not be a bad thing…

It- it was there!" she shouted at his embrace. "Only for a split second; a fucking split moment and that thing was there! My heart… I felt it stop for a few seconds… horror takes thousands of shapes… and they are all watching me… they have been watching all of us since the beginning…"

She sniffed in his embrace for quite some time, the deceptive moonlight slowly tracing over her trembling body. "How did you do it, Jaune?" she asked him. "How did you survive this thing all that time down there?"

The scarlet burning sun had long ago given way to an eerie moon. Pale luminescence flowed into the deserted village-town of Clayhorn, giving depth and life to every grisly shadow haunting every silent stone alley.

His shift having almost finished, Jaune averted his gaze from the dimly lit window, partially covered by the towering shadow of the Red Rocks.

Wish I knew Ruby, his thoughts travelled back to that night a few weeks ago. He tugged his light blue desert cloak to try and keep the cold away. Then again, some things tend to lose their value when you find them.

He raised his scroll- it was still dead. "I guess no midnight games for you man" Sun's teasing voice grabbed his attention and he briefly spent a glance towards his back, where his fellow blonde was drinking coffee.

Weiss and Blake were fast asleep next to him, a few meters away from the remains of the macabre nest. Sun had been currently working on a bench hastily made out of the half-broken wooden kitchen table.

The results of his work could be clearly seen in the cottage's back wall. Two bags filled with the sorted remains of a two human corpses were buried in the soft ground under a carefully drawn Shade huntsman sigil.

"Are you sure you can take the next shift?" Jaune asked him, pointing at the corpses "you have been working non-stop so far." Sun smiled and made a 'no worry' gesture with his hand as he walked closer to the boy.

"I am fine; don't even think about it. Besides, Blake and Weiss were the ones who sorted them out and buried their remains. I just scribed down and hand copied all the information those two poor guys could give us."

Jaune nodded in his usual, good-natured manner "and?" he asked. Sun let out a frustrated sigh "those two were badly butchered, man. Blake said they weren't killed by those lizards; those were just eating them."

"Scavenger Grimm… what a rare concept" the knight commented. "One more thing, we didn't find any local inside the nest" the faunus added "all of the body parts belonged to the two mercenaries stationed here."

"Maybe they were dragged away." "Could be; all that I can tell is that I haven't found a single clue about any resident having been killed here. Even the fight marks and blood correspond to a brutal fight, that's all."

The taller man shook his head "we have reached a point where we can tell how many people were killed from the amount of blood and gore. That is sad as hell" he stared at the window again. "I know" Sun replied.

A few moments of silence passed between them "do you have any clue as to what killed them?" Sun shook his head "a Grimm, for sure. Other than that, we have nothing. They were that badly chopped and eaten."

Jaune rubbed his eyes. He was getting tired. "I think I will call it a night. I am not at my best yet, after all" he pointed at the dent on his shield. "Don't even think of that, man. Rest well" Sun slapped him in the back.

"That I will" he laid out his bedroll between Weiss and Sun's, closer to the sealed door. He turned around, eyes momentarily falling to the digs and the small holes Blake had done to bury the two huntsmen in.

"We are not burying them outside; I will not attract the whole village's attention by doing so during the night" she had opted. "We will use the bags to put them in temporary holes and give them a proper funeral if we are able to only after the place has been declared safe" she had said.

I guess we have been used to sleeping next to corpses too much as well, he thought. Jaune nodded at Sun taking his place next to the window and then closed his eyes, reminiscing of Ruby's smile to drift into sleep.

-o—

What is wrong with this place?

Yellow feral eyes glowed in the dark of night, shining like little gems at the rooftop of the isolated cottage. The slender, catlike form stood next to the chimney, almost inseparable from the thick shadows it cast.

Partially lost in thought, leaving her instincts to alarm her in case of an emergency, Blake observed the dead of night; the stifling, isolating dark silence that brought pangs of horror down her spine. Wrong and scary.

She knew she had insisted that using the rooftop as observation point was absolutely safe, but no more than ten minutes later she had found herself horrified at the ghastly, lightless village spreading before her.

The house is full of ironed clothes, a fully-equipped kitchen and fridge, modern furniture and well-preserved electricity. Someone had been living in this place up until quite recently, she pondered at her findings.

Yet, save for the two mercenaries' remains, we found absolutely zero traces of other people. Even the blood Weiss collected was too little to belong to anyone else than them. Whoever lived here wasn't eaten.

She rubbed her arms and resisted the urge to sniff an aroma vial; there was no telling what else could possibly sniff it as well. Not to mention we still haven't been able to identify what actually killed them; that d-

A small gust of energy appeared before her and Blake was surprisingly unsurprised to see the purple-eyed reflection of her sentient weapon form in the shadows next to her. What are you doing here? She asked.

I am unable to investigate further, as you commanded. The statement was equally absurd and worrisome. There are ancient spells carved on the ground and walls- almost as old as me. They seal my teleportation.

Now, that was a bad set of news. Did you try walking in? Blake asked it again. There was no problem doing so, but it would be nearly impossible to infiltrate unseen. Something was trying to follow me, Master.

That was even more alarming. I fled, as you instructed to do if any issue came up, and made sure to use as many shadows as possible as soon as I fled the spell's area of effect for it to not follow me it finished.

Still… Blake pressed her body harder on the chimney did you manage to deduce anything about it? The figure shook its head. I believe it was a Grimm, but I didn't sense any animosity coming out; it was rather calm.

A calm and collected Grimm… why does that terrify me more than usual somehow? She dismissed the figure and it meld back into her shadow. Blake withdrew her legs and hugged her knees tight for some comfort.

Ancient spells carved on the ground… As old as Eidolon… yet according to Vacuo History, this village was founded just a few years before the Great War. If that's the case… a sudden cool breeze chilled her blood.

What was here before the settlers built their homes? She stared at the towering monoliths. Five long pillars stood in the night sky, brilliantly illuminated by the moon. Thank Dust they are not six, she smiled a bit.

The description of Charon's domain, a pit of black rock surrounded by six red monoliths, had been brought up from Weiss many times since they had arrived. Thankfully for her sanity, the place didn't have many resemblances to The Mad King of Curses' empire as Red described it.

That wasn't enough to stop her from double-checking her custom made Anti-Elder bullets to make sure they were ready to be used, of course.

She took a deep breath and took out her map. She had a rough idea of the village's facilities and their locations, but she had been hoping they would have managed to pinpoint them today before going to sleep.

Needless to say, the scavengers' attack crushed her hopes along with all the preparations she wanted to make in advance. Blake sighed deeply. Here's to hoping that tomorrow is going to be a better day she sneered.

-o—

The day was not going well and it was only morning yet. "How?" Blake's voice echoed inside the stone cottage, lips trembling in anger. "I have no idea baby" Sun tried his best to defuse the tense situation. He failed.

She turned to Weiss, who was angrily staring at the wide-open graves in the lower corner of the single-room establishment. The corpse bags she had put inside were missing "we were sleeping right next to them!"

Feeling the dreadful putrid stench of the earth surrounding him, Jaune rubbed the perimeter of the human-sized hole. The dirt was pouring in a weird manner, bursting peripherally out of it, as if it had-

"They were opened from inside out" he exclaimed, making everyone in the room turn at him with eyes open wide and shocked expressions in their faces. "Whatever that means, something dug out of the graves."

Blake turned at Weiss again. Cyan met yellow. "Don't ask me; I know it looks weird and suspicious, but I was up my entire shift and nothing of the sort happened" she stood firm. "You know I wouldn't mess this up."

When she realized what Weiss was implying, Blake narrowed her eyes at the girl "even thinking I would consider you sleeping on your shift is an insult." She took one step towards her "when did you notice it?"

"After I woke Jaune up; I turned to poke at Sun and my eyes saw the grave open and the remains missing. I didn't notice anything else" she sounded a bit remorseful and a lot frustrated. "I am at loss for words."

"You are not the only one" Jaune commented. "What troubles me the most is; there is no indication of a tunnel having been dug or any sign of a scavenger having dug them out. I don't know what to say" he added.

"The only logical explanation is the parts-" "Careful what you are going to say. Words have power in a very literal sense in these places" Weiss reprimanded him and the monkey boy apologized in an honest manner.

"Let's move out" Blake suddenly cut them off. "What?" the alabaster girl blurted. "We have a ton of work and can't waste any more time on something that quite possibly can't be rationally explained" she replied.

"Our goal" the black-haired beauty grabbed her bag "is to gather info of this place's ties to the Mad King, while saving anyone who may still be alive. We don't have time to waste- and neither has Yang" she stated.

Weiss took a step back. Without replying, she grabbed her bag and took her weapons. "Let's go" she nodded in determination "you are right" a faint whisper reached Blake's ears as her petite friend passed by her.

The two blondes followed suit and the team quickly stepped out of the house- coming face to face with the village, dyed in the morning light of the fiery desert sun. They stood next to each other, gazing in awe.

Despite being doused in sunlight, the place was really dark. Shadows were cast in the dark alleys that now seemed even steeper and tighter than before. The houses felt taller and the deserted roads were narrow.

A suffocating, oppressive feeling filled the atmosphere. "I can sense lots of magic pouring out of the ground" Weiss whispered, her eyes shining in a crystal hue. "Eidolon said an ancient spell protects it" Blake replied.

"Why didn't she feel it yesterday, then?" Sun asked out loudly. "That is one good question" Blake replied. Jaune tried to calm down his breaths.

"Change of plans everyone" their leader announced. "We are staying all together and investigating this place in a slower pace." She took out the town map and pointed ahead "follow me and stay close to each other!"

She led them inside a narrow, tunnel-like alley. Sun and Jaune scouted the opening, before Blake stepped in, Weiss covering their back. It was a tight-knot space, with houses built so close to each other they felt as if they would be squeezed between their walls at any given moment.

"There is no sense of open space" Weiss whispered. Sun tried to take a peek inside the nearby house. It was too dark and blurry to see a thing and the monkey boy never had the best night vision to begin with.

"Yes, it feels as if we are skulking through a labyrinth and not the open streets of a village" Blake noted. Jaune reached the corner and carefully scouted ahead "there are two paths here; which one do we take?"

Blake froze. She stared at the map and then at Jaune. She stared at the map again. "Is something the matter?" Sun moved closer to her. "There is no fork in the map; there should be one single road ahead" she said.

"Could the map be wrong?" a little more anxious than before, Weiss did ask. Blake narrowed her eyes in suspicion "I won't risk it" and opened a pouch from her belt, revealing a small round metal object- a compass.

"The left one" she told them after a few brief moments. They walked up a flight of road-made rock stairs and turned left once more, always looking out for potential danger looming around each and every corner.

"It's not the path; the entire map is wrong" she announced. They made a quick stop at a dusty old road, finding a mediocre shelter below a tiny protruding balcony from a first-floor house. "No route is shown in it."

Weiss pressed her lithe form on the wall next to her leader, while the two boys were standing in full alert on each side of the alley "either the one who made the map was a total moron or-" she eyed her friend.

"Or your hypothesis is much closer to reality than we hoped" the black-haired faunus gave off a weak smile. The ex-heiress closed her eyes for a brief moment, allowing her mind to travel back to that night in Vale.

-o—

A few days ago

Blake's apartment, New Vale City

"We are all ears Weiss" the cat girl gave the signal after having carefully chewed down her last slice of pizza. Ruby was audibly munching down her own one, sitting in Jaune's lap. Sun was caressing the cat girl's ears.

Weiss stopped rubbing her exhausted- physically and mentally- fiancée at her back and licked the inside of her cheek. "As I said before, it's just a theory. Many people would even call it a crackpot one" she started.

"Thankfully, we are not such people" Sun grinned, his infectious bright attitude forming a smile on everyone's face. "Fine then" she grabbed Yang's hand, sending her as much love as she could currently muster.

"Red had mentioned in his diary many times that we are all blind to the true essence of the world" she begun. "Cherry mentioned something as well; she keeps telling me it's not my fault I can't see the truth" Yang's voice added, trying to help her lover with her explanation.

"Avyssos called Ruby blind in more than one occasions, too" the white huntress mentioned. "It did mention that, yes" Ruby replied "it said we are all blind mortals who fail to grasp the true essence of our world."

Mismatched cyan eyes nodded "my grandfather mentions a particular spell at one point; a ritual that allows people to see things as they truly are" she added and everyone stared at her in confusion and curiosity.

"I admit I had trouble understanding what it meant, until Yang began to have those weird…" she squeezed the blonde's hand in her and felt the pleasant sensation of her palm being tenderly rubbed "visions of hers."

She drank some apple soda "have you ever felt the sensation of a place being wrong?" Yang went straight to the point, winking at a disgruntled Weiss. "Wrong? Like what, being too eerie?" Sun asked her in wonder.

"Just wrong" she replied in more serious tone. "As if the, well, reality in a sense is being ripped apart. Like, you are standing there and have this really worried feeling that you see things that shouldn't exist at all."

"The White Altar church at Yugure" Ruby whispered "and the Temple of Avyssos, were both giving off a feeling of 'must not exist' to me" she did snuggle in Jaune's arms a bit more. "Riverside was like this too" he said.

"I didn't get anything like that, to be fair" Sun rubbed his chin. "For me and Blake it definitely was Grand Mother's prison and Morkvind's altar in Aegis forest" the brawler commented.

"As for me" Weiss pointed at her artificial eye "I've never in my life felt something as wrong as that accursed Elder sleeping under Octavios Red Mansion. The thing oozed so much wrong, it covered the whole island."

"What's your point?" Sun asked her, still confused. "This feeling… that sensation of wrong is tied to the Eldergrimm, but manifests in specific places. Why is that; why not in every place under the Elder influence?"

"Because of the magical- no, that sounds wrong" Jaune replied to his own question. Ruby smiled and Yang sighed deeply "Weiss thinks that there are things we can't see in our world and gather in such places."

"Say what?" Ruby blurted. She eyed her partner who stared at Blake. "If you remember, I said at the beginning of all these that I would try and make a list of places with similarities to Yugure" the faunus explained.

"Among all common things we narrowed down the feeling of wrong, as if the world went bad and wasted all of a sudden, was prevalent. Many people mentioned seeing things inside there" Weiss further elaborated.

"So I asked Neptune and Velvet a few months ago to run a quick check; do you know what came out?" Blake asked them. "All of them had, one way or another, been exposed to magic at some point of their lives."

Three sets of shocked eyes alternated their gazes between the two girls with mouths hanging agape. "You mean-" "I can't be sure per se" Weiss cupped her face with her free hand in an attempt to focus her thought.

"But I believe there is something out there, lurking in the dark corners of the world, creeping at us. Human and faunus' survival instincts are blocking all senses allowing us to perceive it, because it's too horrible for us to handle- and that exposure to magic somehow awakens them."

Sun licked his lips, giving off a weak laugh. "Grand Mother's eye allows Yang to see through that subconscious barrier and take a good look at the forms that live inside it, reflecting them at mirror surfaces. As to how they look and what they may actually be…" her voice trailed off.

-o—

Blake nodded, noticing Sun and Jaune's discomfort at their words "the map feels like it's describing a completely different village" she said. "It could be that-" "it's mapping a different version of that village."

Eyes still closed and back pressed on the hard, rocky wall, Weiss rubbed her forehead, noticing she had started sweating. Sun, Jaune and Blake turned their gazes at her, waiting the petite girl's explanation.

"Horror takes many shapes. We are just starting to see them for what they truly are; just like they want us to do" she whispered, her words resonating in the darkened alley like curses hanging upon their souls.