Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all doing fine!
Chapter 155 is here. As always, I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you once more for keeping up with the story by following/ favoring/ reading it. You are all awesome and I appreciate it so much!
See you all again on July 1st with chapter 156. Until then, be well and have fun!
Ruby's fingers deftly slipped over the handle of her gun. Crescent Rose wasn't there the last time she had faced Cinder's brother, but she had managed to outwit him and emerge victorious. "You are alive" she said.
If he was angry, he managed to contain it quite well "not thanks to you, trust me. You did all you could for me to end up dying in Grimmwater" he rubbed his shoulder "you have a knack for killing my family, Rose."
"Don't you even" her eyes flared in anger. "You were the one who took Jaune and forced us to that nightmare island, where we met" her mind reminisced of the unfathomable abyss- the dark, deep ocean depths.
Faces drowned in the water. Huntsmen, civilians… people who had done nothing wrong. They were slowly sinking to the depths, where a fate worse than death awaited them. They were the people of Vale; the people she had failed to protect and had even caused their deaths.
"We did mistakes" she tried her best to ignore the sudden smell of salt water that filled her nostrils "but ultimately, it was your fault this thing almost got reborn. Do you know" her voice cracked; Ruby was mad.
"Do you know how many people died because of you stirring that thing from its grave?" she raised her voice at the amber-eyed redhead. "I can understand Cherry; she was brainwashed and groomed. But you? You can't be telling me you helped those guys to get your revenge at me!"
Alizar lowered his gaze. The dolls standing between them shook and for a moment Ruby regretted her outburst. But she couldn't help it; her nerves were on edge since she had first stepped in here and now Yang had gone missing; quite possibly trapped in a magic room from Alizar.
Not to mention there was something else, too. There was a question; a simple question she had been dying to ask every time she let her mind travel over the murky oceans and abysmal waters of the Mistralian Sea.
A question she thought she would never get answered since she believed the boy in front of her had died in the decrepit chasm of the monstrous creature it had tried to sacrifice her to. "How does it feel?"
"What did you say?" Alizar narrowed his eyes in confusion. Ruby bit her lower lip and rubber her forehead to calm her mind and partially hide the little nightmares from her sight in order to focus on the boy's eyes.
"How does it feel to carry so much hatred inside you that you wouldn't care about the survival of an entire world as long as you satisfied your revenge?" she asked, eyes pleading in sorrow "how is it possible to feel so much hatred and anger that you would burn the world to get me?"
His gaze didn't waver. I will always be there for you… that phrase, the last thing his sister ever told him, still wavered in the back of his head. The warmth still lingered in his body. Even though he now felt cold.
"Will we be able to go back to what we were, Elia?" his own voice made that question the same way he had back then. "Alizar" Elia hesitated a bit. Her lost eye pulsed red under the scarlet fire. "I will make things right, just watch me. I will return and we will be free from the curse."
"You wouldn't understand" Alizar replied. "Have you ever been told a lie so beautiful that you prayed with your entire might to turn true?"
The four cold-faced figures gently stepped aside, allowing Alizar to move between them. He now stood a good three meters away from Ruby, just before the elaborately decorated tea party table.
"Have you held your sister and hugged her so hard, telling her how much you love her, because you knew it would be the last time you would ever see her?" Her face grew pale and her blood froze in fear.
"Where is Yang?" the silver-eyed girl lowered her scythe, fingers fully ready to swing it around in case any of her adversaries decided to get frisky. The boy narrowed his eyes "of course that's what you care for."
"Wouldn't you?" she asked, expecting his outburst. To her massive and confusing surprise, she received none. "I had nothing to do with her disappearance, trust me. It suits me a lot, but I played no part in it."
His words were calm and, to her, sounded quite genuine. He didn't try to confuse or even divert her attention elsewhere. That was quite the surprise for Ruby, whose wrists still had marks from his chains on.
Something happened to him… he sounds a bit different. "You do know where she is, though. Don't you?" she tried to ease the tension a bit, despite her eyes not leaving the creepy tea party attendants' faces.
"Don't worry about them" he smirked. "As long as I don't command it, they won't lift a finger to hurt you; literally" he snapped his fingers and all four dolls crashed down on the floor with a loud, heavy sound.
Ruby stared at the now motionless pieces of porcelain, still elegantly and beautifully decorated, laying on the carpet. How had Alizar done this? He was no magus, as far as she knew, and his semblance was-
Eyes opened wide in shock. She raised her gaze at the boy and her lips parted slightly. The sound was more akin to a loud whisper than actual talk "mineral manipulation. You were the one moving the dolls before."
"Just the one in the hallway and the two on the ladder, in addition to these ones" he admitted "as for the others, I think you already met the little cooking lady." Ruby shivered, remembering the monstrous doll in the kitchen. "I merely used the real dolls to guide you two up here."
"I see…" she lightly shifted her stance. If he noticed, he didn't show it. "You didn't answer my question; do you know where my sister is?" she pressed the matter again.
"Yang Xiao Long is in the Netherworld" he replied. Ruby's face lost all of its color and she was unable to contain her shock at the sudden, honest answer about the blonde's fate. She didn't know what it was, but it did sound ominous; a lot ominous, if she wanted to be honest. "Where?"
"The painting behind you is a gate" Alizar explained, retaining his calm and unexpectedly stoic demeanor "created by Fergus Celain's adopted protégé, Petro Ribuli, when he lived in this house a few decades ago."
"Petro- Ribuli?" she blurted again. "I just met him earlier today! He-" she felt a sudden dizziness assault her skull. "Was it earlier today? Was it- was it even real?" she asked out loudly. "Did we truly meet him?"
"Yes and no; let's leave it at that" Alizar pointed at the splendid, vivid painting behind her. "You were trapped in here by the master of this place; Fergus Celain's nightmare and Jester of the Mad King Tephrus."
As if responding to the baleful utterance of the forbidden name, the air slightly changed. A foul, putrid stench rose from the pristine and clean carpet, becoming nearly visible scarlet vapors rising up to the ceiling.
Ruby's heart froze. Tiny little footsteps echoed in the empty mansion, resonating through the walls and- she tilted her head upwards- dancing through the attic. Merry childish laughter reached her frightened mind.
"Speak of the devil" the boy whispered. She noticed he seemed anxious or even scared. "It's time to wrap it up, Ruby Rose" his voice was kind of strange. Even as he raised his hand to attack her, he sounded tired.
"You don't have to do this, Alizar" Ruby cocked Crescent Rose. "Cinder had no way out of this; she was being used from the Order and Salem as much as she was using them." He stretched out his arm and stood.
"You know why she did it, didn't you?" Ruby's voice was rasped and a bit hoarse. The sound of footsteps muffled her cries, the wooden floor shaking with every single step resonating up the ornamental staircase.
He balled his hand into a fist. The reaper could see his fingers tremble. Her index finger caressed her baby's trigger. Alizar knew; he knew what she wanted to tell him. He knew- and didn't want to hear it from her.
"She did it for you; so that you wouldn't have to keep living in a world polluted by war and strife" the very moment the words left her lips, a loud creaking sound began climbing up the staircase.
"I know" his face hardened "and I don't care." "You have a choice!" she took a step forward. "Unlike her, you have a choice! You can hate me all you want; you have a right to hate me!" Ruby exclaimed out loudly.
"But please…" she felt his hesitation. His troubled expression allowed the red caped girl to press further, all the time straining her ears for the footsteps that were slowly advancing at them. She had very little time.
"Don't throw away your humanity to the monsters. Hate me as a human, fight me as a human. I will take you on, as many times as you like until you are satisfied or one of us falls dead" she asked him.
"But not like this; not with the world at stake! Not when my sister is at the mercy of a Grimm and an ancient Elder is about to awaken! Don't condemn others for the blood Cinder and I have spilled; I beg you!"
As Ruby finished, the air grew heavier. A heavy sizzling sound akin to a shower of sparks being sprayed on top of a plié of ashes erupted. A red tinge came in from the half-open door, dying the dollhouses crimson.
"You" Alizar replied in a low, nearly whispering voice. His hand shook and his fingers trembled. Ruby's body was filled to the brim in tension, instincts waiting the boy's reply. "You sound like her so damn much."
Alizar opened his fist. Crescent Rose had begun arching for his head even before his semblance activated. The dollhouses shook and the walls cracked.
Angry screams filled the dollhouse, muffled by the creaking sounds of a three-faced Grimm horror moving towards them, its body dripping in smoke and the residue of dust rounds from its previous fierce battle.
-o—
The first thing Yang saw when her head stopped spinning and her body ceased feeling like it was being pulled apart was a concentrated assault of myriad dark colors synthesizing an image of absolute, still ambience.
Her back was pressed on a hard, flat surface. She rolled around and met a wooden floor covered by a thin, tattered carpet. Thick layers of dust, no, of something gray and brittle, covered the once exquisite red fabric.
What the eff just happened? Did I really get sucked into that painting? She pressed her hands on her eyes- and at once realized something was terribly off. The sensation of touch in her left arm was, well, different.
She lowered her left arm and rubbed her eyes with her metal one. Her senses were slowly returning and the numb, searing sensation pulsing out of her left palm was hard to miss now. It hurt a lot- and even more.
She opened her eyes and stared- her heart sank at the sight of a pitch-black, fleshy arm covered in slimy Grimm texture where her own pink flesh once was. Resisting the urge to cry, she hastily took off her jacket.
Gods and Holy Dust! Ignoring the fact she was sitting half naked in the middle of, well, somewhere, Yang failed to now repress the terror rising from the depths of her soul as her blouse fell on the floor.
Her hand had been completely and utterly turned black, her own flesh lost to the Grimm texture up to her elbow. Dark wisps of energy slowly throbbed in her upper arm, eager to devour more of her humanity.
Her nails were still short, but had turned a bony white color. Worst part was, however, an array of small bulging red eyes that seemed to sprout from the one in her palm and climb up her limb, adorned in thin green and gray charred lines of vile eldritch power. She counted five of them.
Tears fell down her face and she averted her gaze for a moment. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw them gleam in sinister pleasure at her predicament. Good thing Rubes isn't here to see me like that, oh God.
That was right. Ruby wasn't there. Her sister had been left behind the moment Yang had been sucked inside that accursed painting. Blake, always serious and proper, wasn't around to guard her back either.
Weiss, with all her love and caring nature wasn't there too. She was, if she could elaborate a guess, searching through corpses in the village of Clayhorn with the rest of their friends; stalwart Jaune and bright Sun.
They weren't there with her. She was alone, in dust knew where. A soft gurgle left her throat, soaked in her tears. She was alone; nobody was there to see her- thank dust. No one was there. She was alone… finally.
Yang curled and hugged her legs, seated half-naked in the darkness. She was alone; nobody was there. She could finally let it all out. At last she could take a breath without being afraid someone would notice.
And so… she sniffed. Her emotions, masked under the pretense of a powerful and determined façade, cracked like thin porcelain under the ominous image of her marred, forever tainted skin. Her vision blurred.
I will go down fighting… she whispered her own words, lips drowning in her tears. They were salty and bitter altogether.
That's it, right? Fighting or not, I am going down! Her chest trembled and violently convulsed, trying to ease her rapidly escalating breath. I am turning into a monster. I am truly gonna die like a rabid mongrel!
And like this, Yang let it all out. She curled into a ball and let all her dark fears and suppressed emotions out in the darkness; where none of her friends would worry and nobody would drown in sorrow at her state.
Because Yang was strong. She had always been there for everyone- she had allowed Ruby enough space while supporting her. She had listened to Blake's troubles and she had returned Weiss' love with equal care.
She always lent her shoulders to everyone who needed support. Yang was strong and kind and caring. And that's why she broke down in the deep darkness, crying her heart out where they couldn't see her.
"I" she whimpered between her cries "I don't want to die!" she sniffed and screamed. "I don't want to let you alone! I don't want to vanish like this!" She dug her nails into her flesh. They hurt a lot. She cared not.
"I don't want to turn into a monster! I don't want any of you to see me become one!" images of her form standing dead, headless in a hill of flowers in Patch, neck dripping blood, reflected in her stream of tears.
"I don't want to force any of you to put me down! I don't want you to live the rest of your lives with such a burden! I want to live!" she was unable to hold any of her breaking emotions back and roared in sorrow.
"I want to marry Weiss and have kids with her and grow old smiling! I want to spend my weekends playing games and drinking beers with Lu and Velvet! I want to spend more time with Ruby and Blake!"
Her outburst turned into a stream of sorrowful cries, disrupted by few regretful words echoing in the blackness of her surroundings "I have so many things I want to do with all of you; I don't want this to end yet!"
She didn't know how many minutes passed with her trying to stifle her muffled cries and find the courage to pick up her blouse and jacket. She did, however, manage to at least regain enough composure to do so.
Trying to ease the mortified feelings that overwhelmed her, the blonde welcomed the sensation of fabric covering up the polluted flesh from her sight. Sniffing and wiping off her eyes, she took a good look around.
A dark corridor made of black stone welcomed her. There was no light other than a few old-fashioned wooden torches on the walls, burning in an eerily calm scarlet light. There was no wind, but they were blowing.
Of course, there was no sign of the entrance she had burst in from. Her acceptance of being trapped had begun the moment she had realized what had transpired. "Just amazing; another dungeon" she complained.
As if responding to her comment, the wicked eyes bulged and a sense of dread climbed up her veins. She clenched her fist and tried her best to ignore it; her tears had been dried up and her eyes were puffed red.
"Why do children die?" the voice came so abruptly and suddenly that it startled her on her tracks. It blew on her from the dark as if it was being carried from the wind itself. "Why does their fate contain only pain?"
The voice was full of sorrow and regret. It spoke of sadness and of a dreadful sense of loss. It was old and creaky and rasped, but… it was human. Despite its hoarse tone, it was an unmistakably human voice.
A mechanical sound, akin to cutting, followed it. She was strangely and confusingly reminded of her wood chopping duties back in Patch when her dad would get her out gathering supplies for the winter.
She hesitated for a moment, wondering whether this could turn out to be another trap, but her curiosity won in the end. Besides, if there truly was a human around, they may be able to help her find Ruby.
Who knows? She thought, rising up from her spot and buttoning up her vest. Maybe I am lucky for a change and they can also tell me where the altar is too. She groaned bitterly in the inside at the prospect of luck.
Slowly yet steadily, Yang tiptoed across the nearby wall. Trying to figure a way out, she now noticed the rays of scarlet fire emanating from the torches failed to light the path for more than a meter away from them.
Not the weirdest thing I saw today. Yang took a burning wooden stick from the wall and held it with her left arm, brandishing her metal one in case she had to defend from an unseen attack. Better safe than sorry.
As she begun to move, she noticed the walls and ceiling were really old-fashioned. They reminded her less of an old manor and more of a castle or- she shivered- a dungeon. The lack of decorations was unsettling too.
"How can one stop death?" Now, that was an extremely intriguing and very, very harrowing question to make at this time and place. All of her recent metaphysical experiences had stimulated her aversion to such a way of thinking. Whoever was talking, they were in some deep shit.
The sound of tools came to her again. She kept her motion as steady and firm as possible. Thankfully, her current predicament and how she would escape from it made a nice distraction from her sorrowful state.
A sudden gust of wind burst from behind her. It was fierce and had a strange, sickeningly warm feeling. A loud snort accompanied it. Yang turned to see, but nothing than the numerous torches came into view.
Except the torches were quite fewer than she remembered to have passed by. As she tried to pinpoint her location by using them as focal points, the furthest two were snuffed out. Lilac eyes opened wide.
As the huntress turned on her feet and started to run, three more of them were blown off. Shit! Yang dashed forward, hoping she had still enough spirit in her to outrun whatever was breathing at her back.
Two more lights went off. Yang jumped forward. She was glad the path was a straight line else she would have definitely been lost. She only prayed it wasn't a dead end for her. Three more fire torches went off.
Should I turn around and fight? She pondered for a second. Fight what exactly? Dust knows what this thing is! A burst of air threw her off her balance. Her light flickered and cast flailing shadows around her.
Four more fires were snuffed out. Whatever thing was after her, it was gaining on her. Yang shot backwards with Ember Celica and used the recoil to accelerate, not even minding to see the damage she caused.
A loud grumble filled the corridor. Four more torches were offered to the deep darkness. The blonde kept running. Her torch flickered again and its scarlet rays licked the outlines of a wooden door.
It was small, barely enough for a person to pass through. A set of blue glyphs decorated its surface, glowing in such a deep color that her eyes didn't manage to register. She mustered her strength and sped up.
Six lights were erased at once. Yang jumped forward once more, fell on the floor and rolled on her back, crashing onto the door. Her eyes fell on the darkness climbing up to her- and the images she saw in it thanks to the accursed eyesight the Grand Mother gave her were nauseating.
This thing… impossible! Not waiting to validate her own vision, she took a mighty swing and slammed the door open. She then jumped in and shut it behind her, hoping the runes would be enough to keep her safe.
She had failed to check the interior of the room before, however, and her heart nearly stopped when an old rusty voice exclaimed in a refined yet nonchalant, almost indifferent manner.
"Now I wonder… who this one might be."