Hello Everyone! How are you doing? I hope you are all fine!
Chapter 170 is here and as always I hope you all enjoy it!
Thank you so much once more, for keeping up with the story so far. You have all been such a great support to my writing with your favors/ follows or even simple reads to Rise of The Eldergrimm. I just finished my drafts and have decided the story will finish with chapter 177. That means, EG finale will happen at the end of January. Even as I write this, I still find it so hard to believe. Thank you so much, once more.
But enough with my two cents of sentimentality. I will see you all on the 11th with chapter 171. Until then, be well and have fun!
"What the heck are we doing?!" Yang blinked a few times, her eye color indecisively alternating between gentle lilac and fiery red. She coughed violently to clear her lungs overworked as they had been from laughing.
"Guys?" laugher still permeated the air around her. She looked at her friends in shock, watching them trying to pull themselves together- and failing in a magnificent manner.
Sun was hugging Blake, trying his best to stand up. The black-haired girl was shaking in her knees, her chest heavily heaving up and down from the uncontrollable giggling. Eidolon was tossed on the ground nearby.
Jaune and Ruby had fallen on their backs, like little kids. "Guys! Please, this is not normal! Pull yourselves together!" they stared at her and just kept laughing. She could hear their throats gurgling in exhaustion.
"I'd like to, but-" Weiss' voice from behind drew her attention. "Baby?" her beloved snowflake was covering her face in shame, but even that wasn't enough to stop the hysterical spasms of her body. "It hurts…"
Yang stood up and walked next to her. "What did you say?" The white girl smirked "it hurts so much… but I can't stop it- my mind feels light and…" she broke in another fit of laughs, interrupted by heavy coughs.
"Blake! Rubes! Vomit boy! Sun!" she stood up again and ran towards all of them, trying to shake them up. There was no response than a new set of extended laughs and uncontrollable giggles. "What is going on?"
She could see and feel the struggle all of them made to control the fits of laughter, but there was no hope. They were struggling- really and truly struggling- to maintain their breath and not drop down together.
Yang felt her hair standing on edge. The laughs were mortifying and the occasional giggle made the whole situation even worse. The smiles she was seeing in their faces- a twisted mix of merry, horrifying agony and pleasure- were a scene out of her worst nightmares. Scratch that, she never had dreamed of something that twisted in her life.
"You…" Yang cracked her fists. "WILL YOU SNAP OUT OF THIS FOR THE SAKE OF DUST?" she stomped on the ground, anger and desperation filling her core- and unwillingly calling the powers dwelling inside her.
In a simple moment, a powerful halo of green fire erupted around the place where Yang's foot had slammed on. Energy radiated in a mighty wave, showering her friends in eldritch fire before her horrified gaze.
In an instant, the pained laughs turned into screams of pain. "What the hell, Yang?" Ruby and Blake rolled on the floor trying to put out the flames. Jaune and Sun patted each other's back in a rather comical and unsuitable for the situation manner. Weiss-
Weiss stood up, wreathed in flames, and ushered a couple words. In a heartbeat, Crown spun in the air and a twister of wind dust slammed them, blowing all the searing flames away with relative ease. "Ow."
The sole thing leaving her mouth was this as the petite woman rubbed her skin, trying to ease the overheated feeling. "That was way too radical, even for you, Yang" she admonished her. "It worked though."
Sun countered Weiss' argument, winking at the fellow blonde who was trying to avert her gaze in shame. Her eyes fell on her shadow on the wall, projected by the dying eldritch flames. The horns were still there.
"Sun is right" Blake finished the argument before it even started. "For better or worse, we were in a bad enough state to require being burnt in order to awaken. So, she did well" the faunus smiled while picking up her sword and giving it a mental apology for her earlier behavior.
"I don't think it was only the flames though" Yang rubbed her left arm and replied. "That thing- that halo seems to be negating magic of some sorts. It did so against both Cherry and Gnastaur" she informed them.
"We will need that when facing the Mad King" Blake answered. "Are we all ready to go?" she then asked, receiving five nods of approval. "Then it is time for us to move. Eidolon will show us the way, it can still sense Charon" Blake pointed with her finger down, towards the ground.
"I am right after you" Sun winked and Blake accepted with a curt nod as she turned to the others. "Weiss and Jaune will be in the middle acting as supports in this formation and Ruby will be sniping from behind us."
"What about me?" Yang raised a blonde eyebrow. "You are going to be holding the rear since your senses is as sharp as mine right now. As soon as we engage Charon, however, you are to take it head-on."
Another set of nods of approval returned the cat girl's instructions. She noted the lack of energy displayed by her friends. They are running out of stamina and willpower- we have to end this as swiftly as possible.
"Follow me!" she instructed and raised her weapon, the shadow figure pointing towards their final destination in this accursed mausoleum of forgotten horrors.
As they ran out of the chapel, Blake silently prayed the castle's Grimm denizens wouldn't stand in their way while following that path.
Of course, she was immediately shot down by the smothering cries of countless horrors. The Mad King's rallying cry resonated in the decrepit chambers, startling the group of huntsmen as soon as they reached the talisman-covered corridor and made haste to the narrow passages.
Yang held her breath, as her body itched with a paranoid urge to kill, maim and feast. Her eyes bulged open as myriad magical lights were for a moment reflected in their lilac-red irises like flickering night's candles.
And then, they started moving, drowning the castle in the harrowing, unearthly sounds of their hulking footsteps and eerie screeches, always being followed by the rattling of ancient chains and cracking stones.
-o—
"Jump!"
Sun didn't think twice to follow Blake's order and stepped powerfully at his nearby clone, somersaulting mid-air above the six-handed Grimm blocking the path forward.
He lowered his arch over its head, slamming it from behind. The cat girl didn't need a second opportunity and quickly decimated the monster in a swift cascade of falcon cuts.
Augmented by her own semblance, Weiss created an ice pillar blocking the incoming spider-like abominations from the left corridor. The tiny little horrors slammed on it- and quickly began devouring the crystals.
Ruby was there. A large fire dust canister rapidly entered her weapon's barrel and immediately was emptied on the advancing hive. The ground and ceiling shook as the Grimm erupted in a wave of carbonizing heat.
A serpentine body pounced on her unprotected back. Jaune slammed it with his shield, pushing it sideways with all the strength he was able to muster at this point. Straining for breath, he threw a grenade inside its mouth and kicked it back at its brethren before it exploded in flames.
Yang punched mid-air and the green-covered missiles annihilated all of the rat-formed creatures that were trying to sneak their way past their rear formation. She then dashed to her left and pummeled a few more.
Much to her confusion, she saw the nearby enemies retreating away from her position, wasting time to circle around the huntsmen's circular formation and try to attack either from the front or the two flank sides.
Yang punched towards the ground and landed next to another one of the worst abominations that had crawled out of this hellhole- a bulky Grimm with no head and a long tongue lashing out from a predatory mouth in the middle of its torso. Its four arms reached out to grab her.
It was the only one. Before she had caved its mouth inside, the few that were supporting its charge scattered in a growling panic and ran to the now unguarded rear end of their formation.
Yang's halo erupted in pleasure and quickly devoured the dying Grimm, but the blonde wasn't keen of wasting time for the feast. With the help of a well-placed acceleration glyph she returned to her original duties.
As a result, the advancing horde of awakened blasphemies withdrew to the shadows, waiting for another opportunity to attack. She raised an eyebrow. To be honest she had a pretty good idea about their behavior.
They are avoiding me at all costs… she grumbled in the inside as a well- placed punch decimated a malformed Creep running at her. It's your fault, isn't it? They can sense you somehow- and they are afraid of you.
There was no reply of course; just the same unearthly hunger that was growing intense with every passing minute and every destroyed enemy.
"We have to make an opening somehow!" Yang heard Blake shouting a few meters ahead. "There is a staircase leading down, but it's blocked by all these Grimm!" Sun added to their leader's information sharing.
"I am on it" she replied jumping forward. "They look like they are afraid of me, so let me clear a path!" she smiled at Weiss and Ruby passing by them and landed just before the stairs' tall, stone-crafted dark archway.
A massive wave of Grimm spread before them. As they stopped moving the monsters had already spread around, effectively circling them, but she could still see the premature halting of the ones closest to her.
For the first time in a while, Yang grinned in anticipation. Gunfire and a series of slashing sounds came from behind, possibly from Ruby and Weiss guarding them. Blake and Sun flanked her while Jaune stood by.
Slowly yet steadily and as the Grimm still seemed hesitant to move, she poured a bit of her aura into her semblance. Channeling it into power, she ran forward as the fiery halo scorched the stale castle atmosphere.
Her enemies tried to flee. They were not that fast. The eldritch eruption from her punching the ground engulfed the abominations and charred their monstrous disproportional bodies into goo ashes and Grimm dust.
Ruby whirled from far away, landing on top of Weiss' runes and using the acceleration provided to augment her semblance. "Get in line!" she roared, pushing her petal burst to its extreme maximum capacity.
Weiss grabbed her partner's hand and the others just made it in time for the silver-eyed girl to propel forward and grab each one of them to form a colorful wave of multicolored petals that shot through the dark opening down the staircase, leaving only Yang behind standing guard.
As they did, Ruby stopped her ability and they all landed on the ground sporting various faces and expressions of dizziness. The brawler then jumped down the stairs towards them and Weiss sealed the opening with a semi-disoriented shot of earth dust from her prized Myrtenaster.
"Move before they decide to stop fearing Yang!" Blake didn't want to see for how long the makeshift barrier would hold. She stared at the stoic figure waiting for her from the shadows. It pointed down ahead.
The staircase was carved of stones and had a tall ceiling, going in circles around a massive undecorated pillar. There were no ornaments of any sort- just a set of wide jagged stairs leading deeper to the underground.
"I won't comment on this" she whispered and started descending as the first sounds of claws scraping on stone started echoing in the dark behind them. Weiss checked her canister and raised one more slab.
They started trekking down the stairs in a rather fast pace, hoping to gain as much of a head start as possible. They passed a couple sealed doors, Blake deciding there was no need to waste any time on them.
"Is everyone holding ok?" she asked out loudly. "More or less yes" the answer came from Jaune. "Same here" Ruby added and the others gave a nod of confirmation. "It's just…" Weiss whispered a bit above normal.
"Is it me or is the air growing heavier?" she asked them in wonder. "Oh, it wasn't just me then" Ruby commented. Yang bit her lower lip; she hadn't felt anything but the rising excitement of that thing inside her.
"It feels as if running through very thin waters" Jaune further explained. "Yeah, but not the clean ones- the feeling is more like swimming in a pool of quicksand, if you ask me" Sun elaborated. "Quite the danger."
"From now and on, steel your minds and keep your Anti-Elder ammo in close proximity" Blake instructed them. "We don't know what, when and how Charon will attack, so be on guard for any weird abnormality."
"You mean we can't trust our senses, right?" Yang asked her. "More or less, yes. As far as I am concerned, the only one who can resist a mental attack at once is you- so I want you to look out for us as well, Yang."
"That's more or less what she always does" Weiss calmly commented. "I know; that's why I asked so" the black-haired woman replied, earning a crooked smile from the horned huntress.
"Hey" Ruby cut them off "what's that thing over there?" she pointed far ahead, where a couple of scarlet blazing torches brilliantly illuminated an elaborate-looking gate with a heavy stone door sealing its opening.
"This is our destination" Blake grimly replied to her friend. Eidolon was pointing right through that door and, from the way it was depicted, she was sure it acted as the entrance to the Mad King's inner domain.
They left the staircase and slowly gathered before the gate. It was a tall one, made of carved white gold and decorated with red gems. Thin gold fibers hang from the ancient carvings, work of a master craftsman.
The images carved on the golden surface were quite elaborate and, to their disgust, rather familiar. They resembled five Grimm placed on top and to each side of the archway, carved in motifs of unholy worship.
Gnastaur was on top of the carving, standing proud before the gates as it had guarded the Mad King's vile domain for ages. It was flanked by Alastor on the left and Blekklat's dark ghastly, skulking form on its right.
A slithering, serpentine form was coiled around a half-broken egg on the left bottom of the mosaic, deformed and warped into the golden surface, as if it was slowly melting into the solid white and gold colors.
A monstrous abomination with six long hands, yet without any head, was hugging the rightmost bottom pillar. Mouths protruded from its torso, dripping wet tongues, hungrily spreading saliva on the archway.
Thin lines forming unreadable characters like monstrous letters danced across the arch, connecting each of the abominations to the next. They looked as alien as the rest of the carving, shining under the dim lights.
"You are shitting me" Yang growled. Unlike anything they had met till here, the door had no elaborate decorations. A set of powerful runes, emanating, magical energy, covered its entire surface.
Weiss and Yang exchanged a worried look. The magic pulsing from the door felt really, really dangerous. "Better be careful with it, everyone" the alabaster girl commented. "It's magically guarded- and trapped."
"There is some strange mechanism on it" Ruby added, keeping a safe distance. "I can see five weird disks here. They look like they can move but I am not touching" she exclaimed in advance to warn the others.
They all stepped a bit closer and, true to Ruby's words, saw the moving disks. They were made of clay and had a central axis around which they seemed to be able to be rotated.
Their surfaces were covered, except for a small opening on their top from which the detailed carving of a Grimm could be seen. Sun looked at Blake and she nodded in approval as the boy reached out to touch it.
Everyone tensed, but the highly concentrated magical power didn't hit the monkey faunus as he carefully rotated the disks, revealing different Grimm abominations, all carved in great detail and vile horrendousness.
"They look like mechanical locks; the ones you would find in a safe of a bank" the blonde explained. "The central axis can be pushed, so I guess it's used to confirm the picture one can select. There are about… ten for each disk and all represent mutated Grimm abominations" he said.
"So, in other words one must find the correct set of images and lock it for the door to open?" Jaune asked and Sun nodded. "And how do we do that?" "The words on the arch are the instructions" Blake replied.
Everyone turned to look at the black-haired beauty, her yellow irises shining under the light of their torches reflected on the shining gold.
"It is written in the language of old Menagerie" she explained. "I can read it in good detail; at least the key words I need to form a cohesive set of guidelines" she dashed to the left side and stepped a bit away.
"The greatest King ruled in the past" she whispered.
"Union leads, Innocence is last.
Aggression second paves the road.
Tradition fourth bows to none.
The mid is paved in innocent blood,
As a worthy sacrifice must be done."
Everyone blinked in confusion, staring at each other as Blake finished her telling of the words. The riddle seemed a bit simplistic and quite the poetic one, but there was an issue of them not seeing what connection could be made between the Grimm symbols and the ancient poem.
Or at least that was the case for the most of them. Sun eagerly raised his hand to draw attention towards him "I think I know what the key is- all those are tarot cards symbolisms" he explained to his friends.
"Tarot cards?" Weiss stared at the monkey faunus in disbelief. "Tarot is based in ancient Vacuo religions and folklore. You may have noticed a theme in our opponents? Gnastaur was called the Hierophant, Alastor's title was the Chariot and I guess the other three were similar to that."
"Blekklat was called The Fool" Ruby confirmed. "Ichor was titled as the Hanged One. Is there any tarot like this?" Yang asked. "There is. And I do bet that the headless abomination has a title of its own as well."
Sun's reply made them all fall into deep thought. "Can you solve that, Sun?" Blake asked him and he smiled at her. "Quickly if possible" Jaune sent a look towards the ominous, dark staircase they had just walked down from. It was silent so far, but that didn't ease his worries at all.
Weiss and Yang were as weary as he was. They slowly raised arms and walked next to the knight, eyes and ears focused on the circular path in full alertness for any sudden assault.
"I am sure" the boy stepped forward and stared at the disks. He gave a few spins to the first, realizing there were not ten Grimm images carved on them, but five actually.
Each one of the five Grimm adorning the gate had been carved twice; once with their head upwards and once with heads upside-down. The analogy was way too obvious to be coincidental.
A thin smile graced his lips and he winked at Blake and Ruby who were curiously staring at him. "If we take its word for it, the order is Union, Aggression, Sacrifice, Tradition and Innocence, right Blake?" he asked.
Blake gave a quick check to the poem and affirmed his assumption. The monkey faunus rubbed his neck and began rotating the first one.
"Union… is the upright Lovers" he explained. "As there is none among the ones we have met, that would mean the headless one" Ruby's eyes lit in recognition, as Sun rotated to the image and locked it in.
"Aggresion is the reversed Chariot" he locked Alastor's upside-down image.
"Sacrifice is the Hanged Man" he locked Ichor's picture.
"Tradition is the Hierophant" his hands were slightly sweaty and he nearly missed the correct one, earning an eye roll from Blake. "Be a bit more careful, please" she hissed at him. "Sorry, I will-"
"Guys not to make you worry, but I think I am starting to hear things from above. Many things- possibly hungry" Yang cocked Ember Celica as Sun locked Blekklat's image and pressed the axis inside the door.
"Is it open?" Weiss, rapier trembling in her hands, asked the boy. "I am positive that-" "Yes, got it!" the brawler jumped past him and grabbed the door, pushing it with all her might, before anyone had the chance to check out whether Sun had succeeded or not.
A couple extremely tense seconds passed, before the sound of stones grinding on each other made them all break into satisfied smiles. The growls from above had become louder and were now easily audible.
"Get in!" Yang didn't push the door further wide, leaving a small dark opening. Her eyes itched and her body strained, trembling in a sudden surge of blood thirst and excitement. Her breath became erratic.
From the middle of the room, standing as one with the absolutely vile darkness eroding the very place it stood, a pair of sinister red eyes was looking at her through a blood-smeared mask made of pure white gold.