Hello everyone! How are you doing I hope you are all fine!
Chapter 152 is here and as always, I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you so much once again for following/favoring/ reading the story. You are all awesome. Truly.
See you all next week in chapter 153. Until then, be well and have fun!
Summer of 79, city of Vacuo, Commercial District
The old-looking, yet well-preserved wooden door creaked open with a loud, cacophonous sound. As the red mist poured from the impossibly silent streets surrounding the mansion, the woman stared at the sky.
The moon was shining in its entire majestic splendor even though she knew there was no way for it to be that visible barely two days after its last circle. It was bright enough to erase the old-fashioned street lamps.
"What a fitting day and place for a family holiday" she joyfully teased at the older man standing next to the red merry-go-round. His long black hair waved as he turned his tan body and fixed his yellow eyes at her.
Maize Goldenrod's heart skipped a beat as he saw his daughter stand at the front of Mansion Celain, one step away from entering the house of creeping horrors where dozens of people had found an untimely death.
The girl was well in her 20s, with a muscular and lean body with slightly broad shoulders. She had long shimmering blue hair tied down in a long braid. Her skin was a bit lighter tone, but her narrow yellow eyes were a perfect copy of his.
She wore a long desert white cloak that covered her blue shorts and her sleeveless white shirt. Lots of golden bracelets adorned her wrists and she had a long, scaled blue lizard tail with bright yellow patterns.
"If you don't like it, we can always leave" Maize, unable to grasp any of her sarcasm, replied. She opened her eyes wide in astonishment.
"Why wouldn't I like it? I am the one who practically decided to buy it! Besides" she crossed her arms at her chest "you are the one who said it is important to have a safe house in case Bistre's plan to assassinate Salem fails, aren't you?" she mentioned as a matter of fact at the man.
"I am not sure whether this place passes as safe or not, Safira" he did reply. "You didn't pay any mind to all the stories about slaughter and moving eyes in the dark that house has?" he quickly accused her.
"Aren't those" she pulled a large talisman from her pocket. It was made of green-white gold and depicted the head of a Boarbatusk in great detail "supposed to protect us from Grimm to begin with?" she asked.
Maize shook his head "even if the only danger inside the house is the Grimm, I made the talismans after the stories and legends of the cults of old, Safira. I haven't had the chance to actually test them yet."
"Oooh… I see…" she pursed her lips in an exaggerated manner. "In that case" she wore the talisman in her neck "our family picnic just became a field test" she then winked at him- and jumped inside the open hall.
Present day
Maize finished counting the proper measures of a human arm and once more made sure to double check the loss of blood and fat through the years for extra safety. He jolted the note down and sipped some water.
His eyes were tired, but he couldn't allow it to deter him from his task. He knew better than most people that important missions had lots of boring and taxing preparations to do beforehand. His life was full of it.
The Mad King was slowly stirring and time, another important factor in most of his cases, was against him. With Azure dead, there was no way he could even attempt controlling the monstrous Elder after waking up.
And, even worse, Bistre had managed to somehow die in the hands of the very same team he had dragged into this story to use as a sacrificial pawn. RWBY had one-upped Woodrock and the result was disastrous.
If Tephrus woke up before Maize's preparations were ready, they were all going to die.
If any of the Mad King's Retainers caught whiff of what he was setting up for their Liege, they were both going to die.
If Fenris' friends or team RWBY found out what his true plan was, they would either kill him on spot or execute him as a lunatic.
He stared at Safira's photo on his desk, amidst the pack of papers he had scavenged from the Archeological Institute of Vacuo and the notes from his numerous digs and ancient tomb raiding in his active days.
She was smiling at him, covered in ash and grime. They had just dug up a massive tomb that led to a secret cavern full of religious offerings that indicated something shocking for modern society; Grimm Worship.
It was that research that had attracted the cult's notice. Bistre was fast to explain all the information and access to unbelievable secrets and unfathomable marvels they could both achieve via the cult's influence.
And now… everything was gone in the span of two years. His beloved daughter was killed in the war after deciding to go a bit wilder than she should have. Bistre was dead, unlucky victim of his own machinations.
He stood up, walked to the window and stared at the brittle, gray ash that fell down from the sky. It resembled snow that much; for a split second he felt cold. Thankfully, death is not the end- at least not here.
A sudden pulse of energy shook the air. His desk rattled on the floor. A stack of papers fell down from its shelf. The curtains shook violently for a moment, before returning to their original position. His chair fell.
Maize's stoic yellow eyes narrowed. That was a gate being activated! In a fit of haste, he ran outside the cabin, barely managing to see the large red gleam vanish behind the six dark monoliths surrounding Clayhorn.
Someone breached the barrier. Unless his current comrades had done anything impossibly stupid, it could mean only one thing; RWBY and their friends had passed through one of the gates to the Netherworld.
He tried to contain his frustration at how quickly things were moving. Are they that skilled? Or are they that lucky? His stoic demeanor took a bit to return, his mind trying frantically to find a solution against them.
The moment he thought of it, he had already made his decision. If they had breached a gate, Gnastaur was sure to go after them. Should it kill at least one of them, it would irreversibly accelerate the King's wake.
On the other hand, letting them run wild in the village was a dangerous thing. If they met with the Mad King one side would end up annihilated. No matter which one it was, it was too soon for this to happen.
For the first time of his life, Maize Goldenrod, former Professor and field Archaeologist, realized he would have to resort to hasty measures.
It was a feeling he hoped would never have to experience again, as his form retreated back to the chapel, holding a leather bag and a ring full of rusty iron keys in his arms.
-o—
Blake and Sun landed on the stone floor, their natural agility helping them keep their balance. Jaune was a tad less elegant, but managed to roll down the stairs quickly enough to jump up and raise his shield.
The ground- the hard granite- shook. Ash fluttered above their heads. The torches flickered, dancing to the tune of a furious growl that came from the arch door's direction, belonging to the ferocious eerie grin.
The claws scraped the granite, melting the stone under their fiery grab. It moved again, its feet sending sparks on every direction as the Grimm came to vision, standing on top of the staircase above them.
It was tall, standing up to almost three meters, with a straight posture and raised head. Its skull was shaped like a jackal, with a full-head bone mask covering it, adorned with long bull horns and huge jaws full in sharp teeth. Saliva- wrong- liquid fire, dripped from its grinning mouth.
Bone plating covered its tail, elbows, shoulders and knees. Its torso was massive and muscular, standing on two powerful hooved legs that were bound in cast iron and shone in fiery red energy.
It had four thick muscular arms with five-fingered hands ending in short and sharp claws. Decorated human skulls were bound on an iron chain in its belly, coated in the same familiar pure white alien gold.
What drew their attention most, however, was the massive ornamental amulet that hung from its neck. It depicted strange patterns and- Weiss gasped in shock- magical sigils and runes. It was as if some of her glyphs had been carved on the gold used to forge the abhorrent pendant.
The creature lowered its head and stared at them with a pair of scarlet eyes. Its gaze oozed in malice, yet was permeated by an unsettling and aggravating calmness; one showcasing a sense of absolute superiority.
"What is that?" the knight asked. "I don't care" Blake replied, running at the boy's side with her sword drawn. "Weiss, Sun! Swarm it!" she did a U-turn with her magma-colored blade to show them her plan.
Both of her friends responded exceptionally fast. Sun's clones charged up the stairs before the faunus had even finished conjuring them, staffs ready to assault the monstrosity from every side.
Weiss' response was equally quick. A quick elegant dance from her left sword and her right hand fingers, augmented by her dust, formulated a set of human-sized white glyphs roaring behind her petite form.
"Go" at her command, six white-blue Beowolves poured out of the sigil circles. They jumped at the imposing Grimm, roaring in hunger, in order to enforce the ex-heiress' will. A small army assaulted the creature.
The jackal-headed monster didn't move or talk. It merely opened its red burning jaws- and the atmosphere was suddenly filled with the smell of charnel funeral pyres. It then bellowed- soundlessly; effortlessly.
A searing blast of infernal red fire erupted out of the creature. Jaune grabbed Blake and they both hid behind his shield, the intense heat and decrepit smell charring their noses and mouths at their aura shook.
Weiss and Sun stood a bit further, so both were able to jump far away from the blast's radius. Their summoned clones and Grimm were not that lucky, instantly being obliterated from the fiery wave's energy.
Weiss didn't waste any momentum. Hoping it couldn't be able to form a powerful defense like that so soon, she armed her canister to ice dust and imbued her arrays with a bit of magic to augment its potency.
"Have at you!" a hail of cold crystals was hurled at the monster, large as half a human being and sharp as knives. She narrowed her eyes. Even if it could somehow defend, it would give Blake and the others time to-
The shards vaporized as soon as they came into contact with the dark, muscular torso. Leaving nothing but steam behind, they faded into pure nothingness, melting from the Grimm's intense heat without any effort.
It melts my ice without even trying to! She groaned in the inside. "Don't come into contact with this thing; its body heat may as well be lethal" the pale girl informed her teammates. "Awesome" Jaune commented.
Blake's gaze followed the Grimm. It strode slowly and proudly, not even caring to charge at them. Each of its footsteps sounded like a bullet and sent red sparks of fiery energy at every direction, akin to forging iron.
The red eyes fell on her. All of a sudden, her skin pulsed. Sweat formed on her forehead and she felt her breath becoming heavy and rasped. A short gasp of pain left her lips; sensations of fever stroke her full force.
Jaune didn't wait for her to command. Seeing her suffering right behind his back, he grabbed one dust-powered grenade; an improved version of the ones they had used in the defense of Atlas barely four years ago.
He pressed the activation button and threw the projectile. The Grimm merely raised its hand and a hyper-thermal pulse detonated it mid-air. Thankfully, this was exactly what the knight intended to happen.
Activating upon explosion, the smoke bomb did a fantastic job of giving them cover. The creature's attack- whatever it was- broke and Blake's skin accepted the joyful sensation of normal air caressing it once again.
Sun had already run at her and Weiss skated next to Jaune, anticipating an attack through the veil. Nothing came, however, despite the clear sound of the monstrous hooves slowly moving down the rock staircase.
They repositioned under the smoke's barrier. Sun and Blake ran behind a pillar on the left, while Weiss and Jaune hid underneath the right side of the staircase, sparks flying high above their heads.
It's taking its time! It doesn't even feel threatened enough to attack us. Blake's mind sprang into action and she quickly twisted her black sword handle. She removed the small gravity crystal inside, stowing it away.
"Switch to Anti-Elder combat" as the roaring sparks became visible and the smoke had started to clear, she made her decision. There was no need to hide their new weapons from their Grimm enemies any longer.
She took out a shining prismatic blue vial and opened it. A fluorescent, gooey gelatin poured out, filling her handle completely. She hated to do this- maintenance had been a nightmare after she had first tested it- but she didn't want to let the imposing enemy get the better of them.
Sun emptied the same substance on his gunchucks. Jaune grabbed his shield and took out one fluorescent blue grenade. Weiss cursed under her breath, filing her beautiful sword with the disgusting substance.
The sparks flew even closer. Heat permeated the air. The smoke cover vanished completely, leaving small wisps of puffy gray gas behind it. A set of three fluorescent blue lights lit up, blades shining in the dark red.
The Grimm stopped its advance, the fiery miasma oozing out of its open mouth gleamed a purple-bluish tinge from the pulsing light of Nightfall.
If fixed its gaze on the faunus again. But this time she lowered her own stare. Her yellow cat orbs fell on her sword, shining its fluorescent blue shimmer. Slowly, yet steadily, she raised the blade before her face.
As the Grimm focused its fiery stare at her, Blake opened her eyes. And then, nothing happened. Yellow met crimson, both dyed by shimmering blue. There was no overheating, not fiery pain and no scorching agony.
In the split second it took for the monster to realize its power had failed somehow, the black-haired girl's mind travelled a few weeks back, to a crisp spring morning in the SHU laboratory in Vale.
-o—
April 23rd ,TRI, Ozpin Academy, New Vale City
"So, what are we looking at?" Blake asked a lab coat wearing Weiss. The pale girl raised her eyes from the jelly-like substance the small tube in her fingers contained before she turned to reply to her team.
"It looks like a blueberry Jell-O gone wrong" Ruby blurted. "I don't even know how this thing reminded you of food, Rubes" Yang groaned. Her eyes rolled and twitched a bit, but Weiss didn't complain about them.
It was so heartwarming to see the Rose -Xiao Long sisters act like this, if only for a bit, that she didn't want to interrupt them. That didn't stop her from smiling when Blake furiously tapped her foot at the two girls.
"You were saying, Weiss?" the SHU vice-captain asked her again. "This is a liquefied ritual" the ex-heiress replied, earning three immensely confused stares. "Exactly the reaction I was expecting" she announced.
"You do realize the term 'liquefied ritual' is extremely vague, right?" the cat girl asked. "Azure was many things- genius was one of them" Weiss replied with an off-handed compliment to the deceased mad scientist.
"Rituals were a means for humans to invoke the magical power of old. They were great spells of power that usually required extreme devotion and magical knowledge, as well as proper timing and components."
"Like the awakening rituals for the Eldergrimm" Ruby noted. "Exactly" her partner replied in satisfaction. "Rituals were time-consuming and would often require to be performed at certain times and places."
Weiss tried to ignore the growing caution in her family's eyes "some of them would also require the caster to procure special ingredients. One of them, that Ruby would very much recognize, is rosemary leaves."
"Mr. Moose had his house full of them!" the reply came. "Cherry told me at some point that many magical practices seeped into folk tradition and lore, mostly as superstition or symbolism" Yang commented.
"Rosemary is one of the main ingredients for a specific ritual; one that is able to disrupt the flow of magical energy. For the Grimm, beings of impossible magical nature, it is akin to poison. And the Elders, who are constituted of far more magical power than your average ones…"
"Are far more susceptible to its effects" Blake finished Weiss' trail of thought. "Azure did the impossible" the snow-haired girl flicked the vial in her fingers "he made a concoction with the power of a ritual."
"How?" Yang blurted "I am no magician or scientist, but that sounds a wacky theory from a Sunday comic sketch, baby." Weiss groaned "the easy part was for him to decipher the ritual components."
She then lowered her eyes at them "he found the ritual for disruption and mixed it with a ritual for subduing Grimm; it is what Cherry used to keep enemies away from Dawn Bridge during our fight at the dome."
"So he mixed two rituals; sounds extreme" Blake told her. "Not as much as what he did next; he quantified the parameters. He managed to find effective substitutes for the proper time and place; materials that let him perform the ritual ignoring the above requirements" Weiss replied.
"So that's it…" Ruby's voice trailed off "the substance Alizar used to try and torment me… the things Carmel wanted to try on Alginos… it was all a field test for that substance!" her eyes lit up wide in recognition.
"Can you recreate it, Weiss?" Blake asked, trying to contain her rising excitement at such a prospect. "I can do better" the petite girl let her fingers tangle in Yang's golden locks "I can ask Oobleck to improve it."
"How exactly?" the blonde, suppressing a satisfied moan, asked her as the scene slowly faded away, Blake's mind returning to the present with only Weiss' final response barely registering inside her memory.
"By including anti-Grimm components, of course."
"You have met your match, monster" shining behind the anti-Grimm blade, confident in her posture despite knowing her magical coating wouldn't last for long, Blake lowered her stance and readied her sword.
That was the signal to attack. An anti-Elder grenade cut through the air, forming a great arch above the monster's head. At the same time, blue gas from Weiss' glyphs sprouted from behind the monstrosity.
Sun's attack came last; three blue clones, radiating energy, slammed at the bulky creature, their staffs swinging hard at its ankles. Its fiery gaze couldn't work on the anti-Elder material, so its defenses were negated.
Arrogance was a bad teacher and this creature from beyond the world of the living was about to pay it with its life. It raised its hand to try and defend- and a sigil of scarlet red runes appeared from beneath its legs.
Being the ones who had the most experience in this, both girls stood in awe at the burning runes surrounding the Grimm. Weiss gasped even as her pouring blue smoke attack reached the jackal-head monster.
Sun's clones scored two hits. A loud roar erupted in the atmosphere, as the Grimm fell on one knee, fiery sparks flying out of its roaring mouth. Jaune's grenade blew off right next to- the runes shone and it vanished.
As the explosion racked the staircase and showered it in the blue shiny plasma, the four huntsmen stood up in shock at the teleportation skill the Grimm had just used before their awestruck eyes.
"What the eff?" Jaune turned around in wait for an ambush. Sun and Blake scoured the area with their eyes for it. Weiss stood there, hands trembling as the blue augmentation slowly faded away from her sword.
It formed a portal- it truly formed a portal to escape through! Not even Salem could do this thing! She shook her head left and right, trying to both fight the fear returning to her skull and pinpoint the fiery enemy.
Is it on my left? She only saw Jaune, trying to shield her from a possible attack. On my right? She saw Blake and Sun, eyes trailing every nook and granny of the floor, weapons still shining in a blue shimmering hue.
Is it- her eyes opened wide as she barely managed to hear a faint sound akin to wood splinters being charcoaled in a fireplace- above?
"LOOK OUT!" she screamed, and everyone followed her eyes to the ceiling. A humongous carving of scarlet red runes horribly similar to her fire glyphs was formed by hundreds of little red wisps dancing on its scarred surface. Heat and fire poured through- a raging, infernal storm.
To the humans below, it was as if a primordial sun had been lit in the middle of the ceiling. Unlike the usual one, the gentle and life-giving, it was fueled in ferocious malice and powered by voracious hunger.
Lava dripped on the floor. Jaune raised his shield to deflect a showering mass of molten earth. The pillars shook and the sky trembled.
"Get out; NOW!" Blake commanded and the team ran towards the exit, as their surroundings erupted in a maniacal dance of flailing wisps and burning forms poured down from the red portal to the accursed earth.