The Knights of Grimm - Act 4 - Whispers of Arkhonex

Chapter 89 - Into the Heart of Rage

Ruby

The Convoy continued to advance towards the Heart of Rage. Ruby stood firmly at the front of her Rig with her team stood beside her, weapons at the ready. The other Rigs crushed tiny Deathstalkers that burrowed through the black sand beneath them, and no rock was large enough to slow their roll. The Huge Armoured Rigs turned and started to approach the cracks that had spread across the land, forming deep ravines where lava and Shadow Dust Crystals were protruding up from the ground. There were so many of them.

But... something was amiss, and Blake could sense it as she looked around. "I don't like this, Ruby. We still haven't encountered any real Grimm defences, only a couple small ones that aren't interested in us. It feels like a trap." Blake said, and Ruby nodded her head.

"I know... but how are we supposed to avoid it. There's only one way to Salem and it's through the Heart of Rage. I remember seeing it through the bars of my prison, it was always surrounded by Grimm. Trust me, these things are in here somewhere, so keep your guard up." Ruby advised; they all heeded her advice as well. Because only a few people here truly knew what this place was like.

Ruby and Oscar from their cells. But Cinder, Emerald and Hazel knew it very well, and so did Ortega since he brought the Drift of Wandering Star here on multiple occasions. As Ruby remembered all this, she lifted her head and her Silver Eye watched as the massive Dreadnaught flew slowly across the sky, with the twenty other Dreadnaughts behind it, armed to the teeth, locked and loaded, ready to battle whatever Salem had waiting for them. Gunships piloted by Acolytes of the Rose and White Fang flew overhead, alongside some Bullheads with soldiers prepared to drop down as soon as needed.

They moved towards the Heart of Rage, and suddenly that cold feeling faded, and the heat grew from the lava. Finally, something that actually made a lick of sense here in her Sanctum. Ruby heard the sound of her link to all forces activate; Ortega was reporting in from the Drift of Wandering Star. "All Forces, we have eyes on the Sanctum, it is dead ahead. All scanners are clean, no signs of Grimm Activity." Ortega informed; he had a bird's eye view after all from all the way up there.

But... he spoke too soon because they felt the Seismic Tremors suddenly build.

"Scratch that! GRIMM SPIKE DETECTED!" Ortega yelled, normally they assumed that a Grimm Spike was meant to be the energy signature that all Grimm would give off, but this? This was something very new, something very unexpected. Different areas of land suddenly erupted, massive chunks of soil and mounds of Black Sand thrown high into the sky, as a titanic spire of Shadow Dust Crystals rose from beneath them, twisting and growing like the roots and body of a stalk. It rose high in the sky, and one of them erupted so close to them that it instantly destroyed one of their Rigs, blowing it apart and carrying the screaming soldiers high into the sky.

Black tar started to pour from the openings in the Stalks of Dust, and Grimm were swarming out from within them. The beasts roared terrifyingly at them as they emerged, Ruby's eyes widened. It was a trap; Salem was waiting for the perfect moment to unleash those things on them. This was a threat that they had never seen before, they never even considering that the Shadow Dust – Dust that was able to completely cut through aura and even shut it down once in the body – could possibly be linked to the Grimm. Now they knew that it was most certainly linked to them, because the Grimm were pouring out, like when a dam wall cracks and water spilled out from it, except instead of water, it was hundreds of Grimm, forming from the same Tar Pits that were scattered across both the Heart of Rage and Salem's Sanctum.

New Grimm were spotted as well, immediately shooting out from the Spires, they looked like armoured squids except they could fly. They made absolutely haunting sounds, shrieking roars as they blasted towards their chosen target. Their eyes glowed a bright red as they dove down at their targets, exploding in highly explosive detonations as soon as they made contact. Black smoke trailed their bodies as they launched towards them. "Unidentified Grimm Variant! Watch out!" Junior yelled from atop his Rig, firing missiles from his Launcher, nailing one of them out of the sky.