Chapter 3: Grave Amusement
After the successful trip through Salvation Tower and retrieving some much needed supplies there, the party earned a well deserved break. The details regarding the Core producing one of the Undead had been reported to Jabberwock as well, and though it had been a horrifying sight to behold, it explained how the enemy were able to reinforce their numbers and how to stop it.
Since supply retrieval was successful, the infirmary staff had been at work and now it seemed that both Thumbelina and Hameln's condition have improved considerably and soon they would be discharged. Meanwhile, all the other Blood Maidens had kept watch for any possible invasion by either Marchens or the Undead. However, as good as some things were, there was a very concerning development that had occurred after the journey through Salvation Tower, as the party gathered at Jabberwock's office to discuss the issue.
"So we have confirmed that around the time you guys finished up your business in Salvation Tower that while outside looking around, Mary had observed the Jail Tower from the ground growing substantially again, and has covered the entire ground level now," Jabberwock explained, attributing the Tower's growth to the Core destruction.
"That does sound concerning, and also kinda similar back in my world too, except the Tower already existed on the surface, and the people there called it the Devouring Armada Tower," Red Riding Hood explained, noting the similarities and differences with this growing Tower.
"Devouring Armada Tower... I think that name is pretty appropriate for this Tower too, why don't we just call it that," Gallows suggested, hearing it as pretty descriptive of the Tower that does seem to be "eating" away at anything and everything.
"Hm, I guess we'll have to make it our objective to eventually get up to the Tower if we want to find out what is really going on with everything," Guillotine thought out loud, seeing as the only way is to continue exploring the surface until they get to the Tower.
"Yes, I know it's a lot to ask for, but right now with what we know and Gato out there, we have to push forward. But still, please don't overexert yourselves, and get rest when needed," Jabberwock advised as he knows that as much as the party is capable, Blood Skelter can be an issue. The party agreed to the idea as they planned to make their move the next day through Grave Dungeon.
As preparations are almost all done for the trip to Grave Dungeon, Red Riding Hood has headed back to her room to pick up her pair of scissors. Upon reaching the entrance door though, she could hear some strange noises from inside. While this did put her on alert, it was not way too concerning due to the lack of locks on doors and most of the community being relatively civilised. Still, being cautious with whatever was going on inside, Red Riding Hood slowly opens the door and looked inside.
There were a few flashes of light and the room seemed darker than usual, but there did not seemed to be anything out of the ordinary. That is, until Red Riding Hood took a good look near the ceiling at the centre of the room and recognised the dangling feet of Gallows up there. Before she could even speak from seeing this sight, Gallows acknowledged her first.
"Hey Red, looks like you're back sooner than I thought, just give a little bit more time to finish up," Gallows said, still hanging in the air middle of the room.
"Uh, what exactly are you doing in here?" Red Riding Hood asked, seeing as this was a little out of the ordinary.
"Ah you know, I am making some upgrades to the lighting in your room, that old light bulb is so bad, figured you probably needed more light. Now that I am back and there is a much larger population, it is imperative that I upgrade some of these units."
"Oh, I think Guillotine mentioned this before, you're actually handy with this stuff."
"Yup, took a while to get the hang of it, but I am pretty good now. So, all I gotta do is connect this and..." Gallows said, putting the tubed light into place and connecting some wires.
*CRACK*
At once, all the lights within the room and general area outside went out, and it was completely pitch black.
"Whoa! What happened?" Red Riding Hood asked, startled by the sudden collapse of light.
"Don't worry! I am a professional!" Gallows replied in the darkness, as she began to descend and go find the solution.
Meanwhile, Guillotine had just walked by the room and heard the small commotion opened the door in a hurry to see what was going on. The door swung inside and managed to hit Red Riding Hood right in the face, toppling her over. At the same time, Gallows was also making her way to the exit, to which she stumbled over Red Riding Hood on the floor as well. In the end, Gallows turned on her head lamp and got up to go fix the lightning problem while Red Riding Hood slowly got up in pain.
After all problems were sorted out...
"I'm sorry about that," Guillotine apologised for hitting Red Riding Hood in the face with the door.
"It's fine, somehow I am starting to get used to it," Red Riding Hood admitted.
"A-anyway, I've done all the proper upgrades to your room, the lighting here is much better, so enjoy. I got some other units I have to work on, but I'll see you later when we depart," Gallows added in, wanting to put the blunder behind her.
Some time later
With the room upgrades all done and satisfied with it, Red Riding Hood departed from there and went to a specific rendezvous point on the perimeter of the city before the exit. Once there,she could see Rachel already present at the location, earlier than the appointed time.
"Hey, you made it," Rachel said, waving.
"Yeah, but you got here even earlier," Red Riding Hood responded, and took a seat on a makeshift stool that Rachel had set up.
"No matter, would you like some tea by chance?"
"I am all right, Alice would have loved it if she was here."
"This Alice is one of your friends back in your world?"
"Yes, also was a Blood Maiden that I found earlier along with Jack. Though in this world, they are gone."
"I'm sorry to bring up some bad memories, we did come here because you wanted to know about me after all."
"It's fine. I mean, everything is a bit strange to explain because of there being two worlds, and sometimes I hope nobody finds me crazy for everything I claim."
"It certainly is strange, all things considered. But, I do not actually find it too unbelievable since Theophil has transformed the world so much, and a lot of things we do not understand fully as well. When Jabberwock first told me parts of your story, it did surprise me at first."
"Well, that's assuring at least."
"Anyway, I know you want to ask me certain things, but I do want to know, how much do you know about 'Rachel' from your own world?"
"I actually don't know her much. From what I read that was recorded, Rachel was abducted as a child and Gato somehow turned her into one of the Massacre Pink, who later joined one of the three groups as Pyre."
"I see, so that's what happened, it makes sense now."
"What do you mean?"
"Simply put, what happened to Rachel in your world isn't really that different than what happened over here. You see, many years back it was basically the same, I was with my two sisters who had taken me in, and one of these days we were outside and happened to run into Guillotine. Needless to say, there was no way we could out run her and so faced with a tough decision Riley and Ellie ran away. From there on, I was subjected to an experiments that would be probably be intended to make me into this 'Pyre' you mentioned. However, things went differently from here."
"So what exactly happened?"
"I could only recall what was told to me since I was younger back then, but it would seem that Gato must have gotten impatient or had other plans, so he decided that all of us were not needed. He had attempted to kill all of us, but Guillotine, along with Gallows and Iron Maiden then took me and ran away. Shortly afterwards, Jabberwock found all of us and took us in to this society. Since then, through the years of living here and having Jabberwock take care of us, Guillotine and her the other two had changed. For Guillotine though, I think she may be either caught up in guilt or just not want to look my way because it reminds her of the past."
"Wait, so in the end Gato just wanted all you dead?"
"Yes, I don't know the reason either, but we were considered expendable."
"I don't know if you've heard it, but at the end of our battle against Gato, Jack's group found out in the end that Guillotine was actually his blood related sister. I only heard about it, but she tried to reason with Gato, but because she was not human, Gato only saw her as a monster."
"This make sense then, that if over here Gato has rejected Guillotine in the same way, then she must have been hurting on the inside all this time. Perhaps the reason that she and her companions changed is because of how confused and desperate they were after that event."
"But still, what would make Gato decide to abandon them like that? In my world Gato needed them to fulfil his plans. Even though here, Alice has died and Charlotte is nowhere to be found with only Mary by herself here."
"Just my guess, but maybe in this world he found the solution in the Undead army that he possesses. After all, they are more feral and lack intelligence, which is easier for him to manipulate."
"I guess so, but... I still get the feeling that there is something else going on that he did not just act right now as the Gore suit he had made him very dangerous."
"It is a mystery that we have no answers for now, but our priority is to continue the exploration of the areas and remove the cores to prevent more Undead from being created. I would say though, Guillotine and her friends have certainly went through a lot, so maybe we can help them as best we can if possible."
"Yeah, it does seem like that no matter which world, they had it bad. Even though when I first saw them, they appeared to be nothing but bloodthirsty killers. In the end, it looks like they were also just regular people with unfortunate circumstances. We'll just have to continue our journey through the Jail. Who knows, maybe we'll find Mamoru and his group too, they got separated from us when we came to the surface."
"Ah right, I have heard about the people you mentioned, and perhaps we can get her to help out with the search," Rachel said, and motioned to a pile rubble just off to the side.
Looking at the rubble, there was rustling movement behind it, and eventually the familiar figure of Mary appeared. "Ah, how did you know I was here..."
"Haha, I know your habits. If you're interested in listening, why not come up here and listen?" Rachel offered, as she completely saw through Mary.
"I guess, umm. So Red Riding Hood, you mentioned something about Gato having a Gore Suit, what was that exactly?" Mary asked as she sat down on the floor with Gaccho.
With whatever remaining free time left, Red Riding Hood told the details about Gato having the White Core fragment that allowed him to safely traverse the Jail unimpeded and what he did with it. Though it was a bit strange that Mary was most interested in stories, Red Riding Hood never questioned it seeing as there was no Charlotte in this world and maybe the poor match girl was just lonely. At the same time, Rachel, though with different circumstances in this world still appeared to be the kind soul that she was mainly known for.
When it was almost time to go out again, Red Riding Hood quickly stopped by around the infirmary to see both Hameln and Thumbelina had made significant progress in recovery and the other Blood Maidens had very much gotten used to living in this society. Even though right now they were not actively involved with exploring, they were doing well, which was a relief.
At the entrance of Grave Dungeon
The party was assembled, and looking into the vastness of the dungeon, everything seemed dark and musty as expected. Yet still, the unknown makes the sight of this place very chilling and the sense of danger could be felt, seen, and heard. Between large pits and guillotine blades, the low growl of the local Nightmare could be heard already. As if everything was not horrifying enough, the ferry rides and giant colourful balloon that could be seen from almost everywhere in the dungeon just added to the spookiness.
Even so, the party knew what they had to do in securing their survival and stopping the flow of enemy forces. Not only that, but Gato is still out there somewhere and is a very dangerous foe considering what is known about him.
"By the way, Red Riding Hood, are you going to be all right after throwing away your hoodie?" Guillotine asked, seeing as Red Riding Hood had used her coat to distract the Nightmare previously in Salvation Tower and had not replaced it.
"Oh yeah, I am fine. If I had still been a Blood Maiden, I would have completely helpless because of Blood Libido, but I am totally fine here," Red Riding Hood assured.
"Huh, it must be nice, not having to deal with Blood Libido anymore," Gallows said, knowing there are certain things in life that they just could not help themselves with.
"I mean, it is one thing to be free, but I do have much less strength that I would prefer not to fight for too long as I am."
"I suppose, well, if it gets too dangerous, just stay behind us and we'll try and take care of things."
The journey in Grave Dungeon begins with the part exploring some of the surrounding rooms connected by twisting and turning hallways, some of which solid walls, and others only had bars, which allowed for some scouting ahead. Right away, the party could tell that unlike Salvation tower, the rooms were not densely packed together, but more spread out. Knowing this, they clearly marked some of the forks they came across to ensure a good escape route in case if the Nightmare showed up.
At one point, the party had considered to cut apart the bars of their surroundings to make shortcuts, but unfortunately the walls regenerated before they could even get through. Plus, the Jail had started to wail, probably in displeasure to them desecrating the walls, so they stopped with that plan.
Moving on from their initial starting point, they found a cart, which they rode and travelled downwards to another section of the dungeon. Here, as they explored the area, they found a couple of empty rooms, but further down there was one room in the corner mainly surrounded by solid brick walls, which did seemed to have something in there. There seemed to be some movement inside the room, and so the party peeked in from the entrance and saw the Undead there, kinda of fixed their gaze in the middle of the room. In the middle, there was tall object that looked like a box, and it was grey in colour. The floor also had splatters of blood in random places, almost as if there was a battle taken place before.
"What is that thing?" Guillotine asked, seeing the Undead congregate around it like some sort of shrine.
"It doesn't look like anything special, though it might look like a grave site?" Gallows said, seeing the shape of it did look something like a stone sticking out of the ground.
While the party was observing them, one of them suddenly snapped their head over and saw them. With a loud growl, the whole horde turned towards the party and immediately rushed towards them. The sudden change in behaviour immediately put everybody into a defensive position as they were unprepared for the stampede, but once the initial surprise wore off, they easily launched a counterattack that stained the room in even more blood splatters.
"Phew, that was kind of unexpected for them to rush at us like that," Red Riding Hood said, having been forced to participate in the slaughter because of how quick it all unfolded, and also on impulse.
"No kidding. It seems like anybody that is not the original human body just seems low intelligence and mindless. Though they do pose quite a threat in numbers," Gallows said, while using her miniature flamethrower to ignite the corpses so they will stay dead.
"More importantly, what is this that they were circling around..." Guillotine said as she inspected the strange object in the middle of the room.
There was truly nothing remarkable about the object, it really did look like a stand up tomb stone. Nothing on or around it indicate it was anything or importance, and even its very appearance seemed to be out of place in the dungeon; however, upon closer inspection, Gallows noticed that in one of the upper corners of the tall object there was a slight slant inwards. Curious, she tried to push or pull on the corner, and sure enough, the surface actually moved a bit. From the fiddling, it would appear that this looked like a closet or box, and that it was hollow. After a few more failed attempts to really move this face of the box, a few weapons were used to finally pry open the box.
Inside the box, there was a large coat with long sleeves and a hood. Most of the material on it seemed to be metal, yet most parts were still flexible like actual clothing. Connected all through the coat were lines that seem to connect from one metal part to another, and down the left sleeve of the coat to where the cuff would be is a huge metal compartment as well as a tube hanging out from it that attached to what appears to be a gun. Down the right sleeve there was an attachment that had a nozzle there. Attached to the cuffs of both sleeves were full gloves with spiked fingers, also decorated with certain trace lines that seemed to fit right onto the sleeves of the coat. The entire coat seemed to be a black colour, though the metal parts had some grey tint to them.
"This looks like a very advanced piece of armour, made for combat for something. I've never seen anything like it before," Gallows said, admiring the craftsmanship with the design and how elaborate it is.
"More importantly, who left such a thing out here anyway? I can't imagine it would be those Undead, as they don't seem smart enough to know how to handle it," Guillotine said, thinking how would such an impressive piece of equipment be just here in the middle of nowhere.
"I don't know, but... that thing there, I think that's a Mary Gun!" Red Riding Hood said, examining the large cuff with the tube connecting to the gun, as it seemed familiar.
"Mary Gun? Didn't you say that's what some people used to purify your allies?"
"Yeah, but why is one here? Who even has the knowledge to make this?"
"Hm, we don't know the answers, but... Red Riding Hood, I think you should wear this suit," Guillotine suggested.
"Huh, me?"
"Yeah, that's a great idea, you did throw away your old coat during the battle with the Nightmare, this one is a great replacement, as it looks to be just your size too," Gallows added.
"Well... all right, I guess if nobody is around we should just take it," Red Riding Hood responded as she took the whole suit out of the box, and it was here that she realised there was also a pair of boots that went along with the coat as a set. After a few minutes, Red Riding Hood had completely equipped the entire suit, and just like Gallows said, it was a perfect fit for her size.
Zipping up the suit completely, and settling into it, almost as if reacting to being worn, the suit made a strange sound, and at once, the connecting lines parts of the metal lit up with red coloured lighting. The sudden change surprised Guillotine and Gallows, but afterwards they were just amazed at such the piece of equipment.
"Wow, there are actually lights on this thing. Don't know how it all works," Gallows said, approving of the suit that was acquired.
"Well, how do you like it?" Guillotine asked, seeing Red Riding Hood also in amazement for what she's wearing as well as flexing her hands.
"Amazing, I actually feel much stronger with this, though I have no idea how the Mary Gun is supposed to work."
"Does it look like one of those Gore Suits you described? The nozzle part on the other arm looks like it could dispense blood too right?" Gallows said, noting that both arms were equipped with something similar.
"Right, what is that supposed to be?" Guillotine asked, also taking a closer look at the nozzle on the right sleeve. It turns out that the nozzle could rotate a full circle around, and after checking around it, Red Riding Hood pressed one of the buttons near it, causing a strange gurgling sound from the nozzle.
While they were all looking at it, the nozzle then erupted in a stream of bright red liquid... right into Gallows' face.
"Gyaa!" Gallows whelped at the sudden splash of mysterious red liquid.
"Oh no, I'm sorry, are you all right?" Red Riding Hood asked, as she turned off the nozzle spray and checked on Gallows.
"Yeah... I feel surprising good after that actually," Gallows said, finding that splash very refreshing and calming.
Meanwhile, Guillotine caught one of the droplets of the liquid and examined it, then she confirmed that it was in fact, blood. "This seems to be blood, and has purifying properties, isn't this just like one of those Mary Guns?"
"Yes. I can hardly believe this. It looks and feels different from a Gore Suit, but I think it functions similarly, for instance..." Red Riding Hood replied, as she tested her strength with her hand with the gloves on, and was able to quickly break the entire coat container apart into pieces. "Yes, I actually feel just as strong as I was when I was a Blood Maiden with this."
"Although we don't understand who made it or why it is here, I think this is blessing to have found this, exploring this place should be much easier now," Guillotine concluded, as the party was happy enough at their finding despite the unknown origins.
Having checked out the suit one more time, there was an attachment on the underside of the nozzle on the right sleeve that led to a specialised container processor, which converts any blood into a usable form for purification. The Mary Gun folded on the left sleeve was still a mystery, but as of right now it mattered not as the party began their journey again.
Due to the vast difference in colours of the dungeon to the Nightmare field, it was much easier to spot when the Nightmare was approaching, and the party navigated through their corner and loaded up onto another cart to travel to another corner of the floor.
Curiously enough, from what is observed on this corner and rest of the general area, there are regular Marchens occupying the area, and only that one corner that had the Undead roaming around.
The exploration of the dungeon proved to be much easier with three fully equipped party members now, and clearing the first section of the dungeon, the party proceeded to the next section as they even unlocked a few short cuts from where they started.
The second area had a different layout, with hallways leading into a series of rooms tight together. From here there was the gigantic Merry-Go-Round that obstructed the view towards other parts of the area, so navigation was left to some guess work. Nonetheless, the party made it through the section to make their way to the half way point of the area and noticed there were the Undead wandering about again. It was ideal to them of course, as Guillotine easily decapitated the unsuspecting victim and then they drew out some blood to replenish the tank in Red Riding Hood's new suit before torching the bodies. After refilling the blood supply, the party decided to take a small break at the door to the third area of the dungeon.
"Hm, this seems a little concerning now, we usually don't see them in this half of the area with the contaminated," Guillotine said, commenting that the Undead appearances are more random compared to Salvation Tower.
"Have they always been just staying in their own area?" Red Riding Hood asked.
"Yeah, this is why before that Tower rose up from the ground, we were able to get around with minimal contact with them. Either that Tower has been changing the landscape or they are actually moving here because Gato is trying something," Gallows suggested, trying to watch out for any ambushes.
"Gato... because of the White Core piece he possesses, he actually remembers things each time the world resets, I am wondering what he is up to this time, and if this suit was actually one of his creations."
"Hmm, I guess its inevitable we'll have to fight him eventually," Guillotine muttered, knowing that the journey ahead will bring everybody head to head with Gato one day.
"That's what happened back in my world, right at the end we confronted him after finding out his true intentions and... sorry," Red Riding Hood trailed off, deciding it was probably best to leave out the part where Gato pretty much ended his own life.
"No, it's fine. I guess you heard from Rachel what happened before? That was all in the past, while he is the only family I have, it does not change the fact that he no longer wants to have that connection between us. Perhaps it is just fate that he meets his end sooner or later. What's done is done though, I-we aren't going to dwell on what could be, just moving forward," Guillotine responded along with a weak smile. Though it was obvious the past was a sore spot, Guillotine refuses to let the past burden the present or hinder the future.
After the quick break along with a small snack, the party felt more comfortable going further ahead in the journey into the third section of the dungeon. Right away when they entered the area, they could feel the atmosphere felt different than the earlier parts. While the giant multi-colour balloon was hovering over most of this section, most of the ground level was visible when there were only caged walls.
Yet, there was a sense that they were all being watched by something or someone. Though the feeling of uneasiness seemed hard to put aside, the party still manage to push forward while being extra careful to watch out for ambushes by either Marchens or the Undead. The rest of the area had been business as usual, and by advice of Gallows, Red Riding Hood was able to cut apart certain wires to open some doors while Guillotine moved the more specialised switches to disable traps as they moved all around the perimeter area of the giant balloon. There were of course, still plenty of Marchens to deal with along the corridors, and it would usually be those places the anxiety would be the highest due to the cramped spaces perfect for an ambush.
Finally, upon reaching the fourth area of the dungeon, the feeling of being watched seemed to intensify, which put everybody on high alert, and they could see that they were nearing the end, as there was a structure up north to their current position. Proceeding with utmost caution now, the party looked all around them, as no matter where they went they just felt a sense of dread that something bad was going to happen. Thankfully besides the usual Marchen attacks there were nothing special. When the party finally moved their way up north to the structure they saw from afar, there was finally a higher ceiling in one of the rooms for Gallows to attach her rope and hoist herself up to see if there was indeed somebody watching them.
As expected though, Gallows did not see anything out of the ordinary that would be a cause of concern. What she did see however, was that just further in from their current location was the Core they were looking for; in addition, further upwards from the core was an amusement ride that would eventually take them to a section far to the left that lead to the other Core of the dungeon.
"Yeah, those are definitely the Cores we're looking for," Gallows said as she descended with a rough sketch map of what she saw up there.
"All right, we'll fight our way through the Cores and the Nightmare, then be out of here. Something really doesn't feel right about this place," Red Riding Hood said in response, though she was confident with her new suit that gave her strength about equal to her time as a Blood Maiden, what everybody felt here was a primal feeling of fear that would occasionally give them pause.
Running through the structure to what seems like a lineup area to a big ride, the party finally saw the Core within reach in the room further in, and behind the Core was the slope that lead up to the ride to take them to the other side. Naturally though, that was not their concern right now, as the low growl of a Marchen put them on alert and ready for battle.
"Here it comes, we'll have to try and keep alert to make sure nobody comes up from behind during this fight, feels like somebody is still watching us," Gallows said, as the other two nodded in agreement.
A giant red Skeletal Dragon emerged from the shadows and immediately brought forth a wave of fire from its unnatural power. Thanks to the equipment the party was wearing, they sustained little damage and went for a counterattack. Both Guillotine and Red Riding Hood tried to attack the legs that it was standing on, but the bones proved to be way sturdier than they thought and could not immediately cut through them. Meanwhile, the dragon launched a counterattack with its legs and knocked them back. During the initial skirmish, Gallows had set up a rope and ascended to the ceiling where she swung herself over and caught the dragon by its horns. She was unsure if the dragon actually had something like eyes in the empty sockets to see, but her best chance was to distract the creature.
While the dragon flailed wildly with Gallows holding on, Red Riding Hood and Guillotine got up again and rushed forward, this time instead of trying to attack the legs, they climbed and jumped towards the heart where there was its fleshy core where they tried to strike. The attack had partially succeeded as blood did gush out from that part, but the Marchen was resilient and shouted a deafening roar while flying up as high as it could with its wings. Once up in the air, it jerked its head upwards to the ceiling, intending to crush Gallows. Thankfully, Gallows had saw it coming and jumped off in time.
At the same time with its two hands, pried off Red Riding Hood and Guillotine and threw them off its chest. Seeing the danger from falling from this height, Gallows launched off all her attachments from her gallows apparatus, with two of them catching the arm bones of the Marchen beast while two ropes extend out to catch both Guillotine and Red Riding Hood. This manoeuvre was able to slow down their descent to the floor slightly by swinging instead of a straight free fall. Still, there was a bit of pain upon the three of them landing onto the hard floor.
By now, the dragon had seen the helpless party and moved its large foot bone to crush them. Reacting to move out of the way left and right, Guillotine and Gallows was able to get away, but Red Riding Hood was caught in the middle and with her pair of scissors and all her strength was barely able to keep herself from being squashed. Seeing no easy way out of this situation, Gallows motion to Guillotine as they got to work quickly: Gallows had attached a rope to Guillotine and then shot the hook upwards to the chest area of the dragon and then hoisted up Guillotine immediately.
Flying upwards at a quick speed, Guillotine carefully positioned herself with her greatsword and thrust upwards at the right angle to penetrate straight into the heart of the skeletal dragon. Once the sword had stabbed part way in, Guillotine unleashed her strength and swung upwards as an unholy amount of blood gushed out of its heart and she began to descend. With this act, the dragon finally began to die and as loosened its leg pressure that Red Riding Hood was able to leap out of the way to safety as the skeletal drake finally fell down and began to break apart.
After resting a bit at the scene due to the intense fighting, the party finally got up, a little relieved that it was over. "Well, that was a handful," Gallows remarked as she reeled back in all her equipment that she had deployed.
"Yeah, that was a little tough, guess you can really hold your own with that suit huh, Red Riding Hood?" Guillotine asked as she saw that Red Riding Hood seemed to be fine after nearly been crushed to death.
"Yep. As good as I can be. Though that was still tough, and if it wasn't for you guys finishing it, I might have been finished instead," Red Riding Hood admitted, though her strength with the suit was greater, it was still pushing it to take dangerous Marchens like this by herself.
"All right, out with this," Gallows said as she smashed the core and it burst up and dissolved.
"EEEEEEH!" Came the ghastly screech of the Jail at the destruction of the Core.
Taking a small break from the fight, the party regained their strength after a little rest, and walked up the slope to the connecting railway to the other part of the dungeon. It was up close here that they noticed the rail tracks were a bit too narrow to be walking on, as well as the twists and turns it had made it especially unsafe with the height. Needing to proceed forward, Gallows noticed a power station nearby as well as a special open cart nearby. Though the remains of this amusement park seemed to be in bad shape, Gallows noticed that with a few small repairs, the ride could be functional again.
"Roller Coaster," Guillotine read from a faded muddy broken board nearby.
"Guess we're riding in these to get down there huh," Red Riding Hood said, unsure of just how safe it would be.
"Well, we don't have any other choice, unless you want to try walking on those tracks. It does look like there are safety mechanisms in place too, so we should be fine. I have made sure it would run just fine," Gallows assured as she began starting up the ride.
Reluctantly, the party got into the roller coaster and secured themselves with the safety restraints as it began. "I am guessing nobody here has been in one of these before?" Guillotine asked as the ride began with the carts in motion.
"Only read about it, never rode one before, this is kind of interesting actually," Gallows said as she relaxed a bit.
"Yeah, other than seeing something like the tracks in the Jail, I have never-AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Red Riding Hood screamed as the ride picked up in speed and began a fast decent.
"AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH!" Guillotine and Gallows also screamed after, as the ride was much faster than they had anticipated as the party swirled around, went up and down at high speeds.
After a brief course around the block, the ride finally came to a stop at their destination, to which the party got off the ride and almost kissed the ground because they were glad that they were alive and in one piece. There was a little bit of motion sickness too from not being used to such a ride, but thankfully nobody puked.
"N-never again..." Guillotine vowed, as it was just a bit too much for her.
"Yeah, I agree, that was not fun..." Red Riding Hood said, barely standing up by now.
"Hm, that was an interesting experience. Though I personally do not find it fun as how the ride is intended to be," Gallows said, having read the purpose of such a ride in amusement parks.
After taking yet another break from the unexpected amusement park ride, the party finally regained their senses, and while the change of pace was good for them, the feeling of being watched never faded away, and in fact it had gotten most strong as they approached the Core in front of them. There was no sight of an actual human or any of the derivative Undead like seen in Salvation Tower, but only quietness. In fact, it was too quiet to be natural, and so out of caution the party scanned the area and slowly approached the Core. Just as they were about to be near the core they heard a small sound of metal hitting the ground near them. Looking down, the party saw a silver canister, and without even a word they retreated as fast as they possible as the canidter exploded with a flash bang over the area.
Red Riding Hood tried to look for Guillotine or Gallows as they jumped off in different directions, but a pair of hands quickly appeared behind and attempted to strangle her. Under a panic by the surprise attack, Red Riding Hood jerked around and nearly broke free when she was thrown down on the ground. Once on the floor, she looked around and saw the silhouette of Gallows on another side of the room as figure approached behind and kicked at her heel, causing her to lose balance and fall down as well. Slowly getting up, Red Riding Hood could then identify the figure that tripped Gallows was heading over to Guillotine standing a little bit further off, and also noticed another figure, probably the one that tried to choke her earlier, approach Guillotine as well.
After a few seconds and the effects of the flash bang wearing off, it was clear the two figures were about to ambush Guillotine, Red Riding Hood jumped up back on her feet and rushed behind Guillotine where one of the figures had knife ready to strike. "Watch out!" Red Riding Hood said as she intercepted the knife strike with her left arm, causing a clash and the Mary Gun component becoming loose from her suit.
"Tch!" Spat out the voice of the assassin, who then immediately shoved Red Riding Hood away, then backed off immediately.
Guillotine had took note of the commotion behind her back with Red Riding Hood's quick intervention to prevent her carotid from being struck, but Guillotine's attention had been in front where the other figure had flung a bottle of fluid all over her. As the smoke really began to clear out, Gallows finally got back up and met with both Guillotine and Red Riding Hood as the assassin fled the scene, but not before throwing a small object lit on fire, which connected with Guillotine and ignited her on fire.
"Got her!" Said one of the voices from the figure further off now, as it would seem the assassins only attacked when they had the element of surprise. Before they disappeared completely, Red Riding Hood caught a brief glimpse of their faces and distinct features, but was quickly brought back to the scene in front of her when Gallows cried in horror to see Guillotine engulfed in flames.
"Guillotine, are you-you're on fire!" Gallows said, noticing the flames engulfing Guillotine.
Very quickly, Red Riding Hood remembered that Jack or even Toh had used the Mary Gun to extinguish candle flames during certain explorations, so she quickly started up her suit and aimed the nozzle at Guillotine. "Guillotine, stay still!" Red Riding Hood commanded as she began douse the flames on Guillotine with blood.
After a somewhat lengthy time and precise spraying, Guillotine had all her flames out and was safe. The accelerants that was poured onto Guillotine were not too potent thankfully, as it was harder to find such things in this forsaken world.
"Hey, are you all right?" Red Riding Hood asked as Guillotine sat down on the floor, relief from having the fire put out.
"Yes, I don't think I suffered any burns, thanks to you," Guillotine responded, gathering herself.
"But still, who were those two?" Gallows asked, unsure of who they were and why they had attempted to do what they did.
"I had a quick look at them as they ran away, if I am not mistaken, those two looked like Riley and Ellie," Red Riding Hood said, recalling the two she brief met and saw back at her world.
"Riley and Ellie... ah, I see how it is. That is probably why they targeted me," Guillotine sighed as she realised what was happening.
"I am guessing they must have waited at every chance in order to get a good strike in after all those years, due to us not venturing out past a certain point we've never encountered them until now," Gallows said.
"So what do we do now?"
"We can just continue on with destroying the Core. I don't feel like we're being watched anymore. Though knowing that they are around, we will probably see them again," Guillotine said as she got up and went over to destroy the now defenceless Core.
"Do they know that Rachel is still alive?" Red Riding Hood asked, knowing that Riley and Ellie did seek out Clara's party because of Pyre.
"Probably not, our community is pretty secure. But the fact that they showed up now means that they had been search for us all this time. We need to be careful from now on."
"Right. Anyway, let's take care of the Nightmare and then go back to think about what to do next. Oh right Gallows, can you hold this for me, it fell out of place earlier," Red Riding Hood said as she handed the Mary Gun component that had become detached from blocking the knife attack from Riley.
"Sure thing, whenever you guys are ready, we'll get the Nightmare."
With the destruction of both Cores, the Nightmare was vulnerable, and inside the Grave dungeon it was really obvious where the Nightmare was with its contrasting white field to the dark colours of the dungeon. When it got closer, the party readied themselves and got into formation as the colourful humanoid with balloons approached them.
The battle began with disposing of the two disembodied heads that accompanied the Nightmare, and they were easy to take out with the party's combined powers. Similarly, the Nightmare's body parts were easier to break through three fully equipped party members. When all the parts had broken through and the Nightmare was cornered, the real battle began as it reacted with a war cry.
With the same approach, the party began to attack from different directions on the Nightmare, but after a few strikes the Nightmare screeched and released a shockwave that knocked the party backwards a bit. Afterwards, it began to cast a spell, and just as everybody got up, the spell flowed through and Guillotine was caught up in it as she began to get drowsy.
Red Riding Hood had gotten back up and stood in front of Guillotine to defend while Gallows went on the offensive on the side as a distraction. While Red Riding Hood tried to wake Guillotine, she had the idea to use the stored blood to wake Guillotine, only that she realised after dousing the fire earlier, the tank was nearly empty. Very quickly, she got up and stood in front with scissors in hand to draw some blood off the Nightmare. However, the Nightmare was much more nimble than expected and was evading most attacks effectively while countering.
Seeing the complicated situation, Gallows acted out and slung her gallows out and caught one of the faces on the Nightmare's body and tore it out, causing a bit of blood to gush out. The pain had caused the Nightmare to flinch and stop for a few seconds, which was just enough for Red Riding Hood to siphon some blood and fill her tank.
Finally, as Gallows tried her best to immobilise the Nightmare by catching on the many heads, Red Riding Hood had the fresh blood converted for use and cleansed Guillotine to wake her up. At this point, the Nightmare broke free of all restraints by Gallows and charged forward to tackle her. Gallows flew back into both Guillotine and Red Riding Hood, who caught her as they stood their ground with the Nightmare approaching them fast. Without a plan, Red Riding Hood faced the Nightmare head on and plunged her pair of scissors straight through the abdomen of the Nightmare, but this did not slow its charging towards the party and she was pushed back.
While Red Riding Hood faced the Nightmare, Guillotine reached out with her greatsword and before the Nightmare could push too far ahead, Guillotine decapitated it and finished it off for good. The Nightmare's body slowly fell down and became a lifeless carcass and Red Riding Hood retrieved her weapon and Gallows getting up after being stunned for awhile. Before the corpse fully dissolved, Red Riding Hood quickly took a bit more blood and filled up, as keeping a fresh supply of blood for purification became important.
Finally, relief as the Nightmare is defeated and Grave dungeon cleared, the party took a moment to relax then explored the last bit of the dungeon, with a short cut leading back through to where they started, so they do not have go through another roller coaster freak out. More importantly though, they also found the orb of light, where they took a quick look and confirmed their next destination of Eisern Tower.
"Whew, I would say it has been a long day, can't wait to get back and rest up a bit," Gallows said, having used almost every trick with her gear to stay alive throughout this dungeon.
"Yeah, it has been a long day..." Guillotine said, being extra tired dealing with certain things.
"Are you all right? You don't look so good," Red Riding Hood asked, seeing Guillotine definitely shaken up.
"I will be fine, there may have been a few surprises, but I'll manage, now let's head back to base."
As the party made their triumphant return from Grave dungeon, they noticed that from the entrance, there was nobody keeping watch as usual, and that everything was very quiet. Immediately, they knew that something was wrong, as there would also usually be somebody in the streets. Acting cautiously, party makes their way into the city to see what was going on.
"Something's wrong, there's nobody out here on the streets," Guillotine said as the party headed down the street towards the Cathedral where the Order of the Sun had set up shop.
"From the track marks left behind at the entrance it does seem possible that our base has been infiltrated, let's head further in and see," Gallows said, as they readied themselves for the worst.
Walking further down the street, it was obvious there were some signs of struggle taking place, but nothing seemed too serious. Other observations was that the people living in the city all fled into their homes and shut the doors while only peeking out the windows. Continuing onward, the party arrived at the street just before the Cathedral and finally two bodies with their backs against the wall. Coming closer to them, the distinct figures of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty came into view, and it would seem that they were completely exhausted. Red Riding Hood was the first one to run up to them when she recognised them, hoping that they were not dead.
"Hey! Are you guys all right, what happened?" Red Riding Hood asked as she inspected the two as they were breathing steadily but obviously exhausted.
"Umm... the Undead had found a way into here and we fended them off, but there were too many of them so Thumbelina stayed behind while we ran out, but..." Snow White said, completely flustered.
Red Riding Hood noticed now that both Sleeping Beauty and Snow White had some blood stains on them as their eyes were bright pink, but it looked like they were ready to lose themselves, so Red Riding Hood immediately cleansed them with the blood from her suit, and immediately got up running towards the Cathedral.
Though relaxed now form being purified, Snow White saw Red Riding Hood took off and pleaded for her to stop, as she had not even finished explaining everything. "Red Riding Hood, wait!"
Similarly, Guillotine and Gallows also called out to Red Riding Hood at being too hasty, but it was already too late as Red Riding Hood dashed straight towards the Cathedral. Fearing for the very worst case, Red Riding Hood cried out to the eldest sister as she stormed into the area, and then she finally saw Thumbelina. At that very exact moment she saw her though, a great force struck Red Riding Hood and she flew backwards.
Shortly after, Guillotine and Gallows finally caught up to Red Riding Hood and saw her hiding behind the wall. "Hey, don't charge in recklessly, Snow White had something very important to tell you," Gallows said, but at this point it was obvious Red Riding Hood knew what the missing detail was.
From the other side of the wall Thumbelina was alive and well, perhaps too well. Her lower body was encased in a pod with black covers along with glowing pink aura spewing out, her eyes had a deep pink shade along with white swirls, and only a small pink cross covered parts of her upper body. There were also only primal reactions coming from the Blood Maiden, as she cleared had slaughtered all the invading Undead forces and continued to mutilate the corpses with wild abandon.
"Yeah, I know... No wonder Snow White seemed like she lost hope, as normally there would be no way to recover from that," Red Riding Hood responded as she still could hear the Blood Skelter Thumbelina blasting anything she could with recklessly.
"With your suit you can purify her right?" Guillotine asked.
"Yup, if you guys can please help me open up a way to her, I can definitely save her."
"All right, leave it to us," Gallows said, as she readied herself.
After preparations were complete, the party slowly headed through out towards Thumbelina, while Gallows strung up her ropes and got everybody set up. By now, Thumbelina had noticed the party and began to burst out with massive energy strikes, to which the party evaded by ascending with Gallow's contraption. However, the attacks did not stop, so after they all took a brief look at each other they swung down close and began to act.
From opposing sides, Guillotine and Gallows landed, then moved towards Thumbelina to try and stop her assault. Before they could get close enough though, Thumbelina shot massive blasts of energy from both arms to her sides, that they only narrowly dodged as they fell down. Taking this golden opportunity, Red Riding Hood rushed forwards and finally got close enough to purify Thumbelina but was interrupted with a headbutt right in her chest. The surprise attack caught Red Riding Hood off guard because it did not seem that Thumbelina would have that much movement in Blood Skelter like that, but she had clearly underestimated her. Nevertheless, as Red Riding Hood started to fall, she took aim as Thumbelina barely lifted her head back up and shot a steady stream of blood.
As Red Riding Hood fell down the guard on her back, she braced herself for the worst, but instead of a point blank blast, she only heard Thumbelina's confused voice.
"R-Red Riding Hood? What's going on?" Thumbelina asked, completely oblivious to what was happening around her.
"I'll explain later, but right now... just let me take a break," Red Riding Hood responded as she sighed in relief, while still on the floor as the crisis finally passed by.