RWBY Through Worlds (End)

206: Allegiance

Shine was on point about the rescue party.

Wally had really thought getting through the Grimm would have been harder, since they were in their mistress' house.

But they were still afraid of him. If anything, the fact that this group had made it this far only made it worse, as if they knew how many monsters had been slain up to this point.

The few who were aggressive were made short work of by Neo, Cinder, and Emerald.

Theo had directed Wally the basic right way before they left. Mercury was in the north side of the castle, probably so that no one could have snuck in without Salem seeing them coming.

But Emerald and Neo kept most of the Grimm that were inside from seeing them.

Ren masked them from the rest who would smell them.

"This is too easy," Jaune said. "I mean, she doesn't have any extra traps?"

"If she did, we'd have fallen into them," Cinder said tightly. "She had to keep the castle itself mostly free from such things. Her magic runs through the entire thing, though. She can trap you anywhere in it."

"She'd have to see us first," Wally said. "I'm starting to wonder if I needed your backup after all, but finding the kid in there could still take a while."

They snuck in easily enough. The door wasn't locked.

Of course this was because Salem was allowing them on purpose so she could trap them.

Which Cinder pointed out.

"Why did you come again?" Jaune asked her tightly. "Is this some kind of trick? You want her to trap us in here."

"I've worked for Salem longer than any of you, except Hazel," Cinder said testily. "I've been to this place scores of times. If I say it's too easy, it's too easy."

"I don't remember Salem really telling us that much about it," Emerald said. "Why would she let us rescue Mercury?"

"The simplest answer to that is if someone else is here who she wants more, he was just bait," Cinder said.

"That is a good thought," Wally said, not sounding concerned about it. "But it's nothing to worry about."

"Why not?" Ren stopped walking. "She could want you instead. Any of us. What if she did just want to trap more of us? Why else would she allow us in here?"

"Relax," Wally said. "Salem might want to capture us, but whatever she's got to use against us is nothing--magic and Grimm. Remember what we've been kicking the butt of for the last week and months too? Just make sure I don't get caught in anything like a net or something, and we'll be fine."

"I think Salem could be more formidable than you expect," Cinder argued. "Even if magic is not as harmful to you as she thinks, she has a lot of Grimm specialized to do her will, and she can always make more if she needs a new one."

"I don't know what could really be a problem for us that we haven't already seen," Wally said.

"That maybe..." Jaune suddenly said, as they rounded a corner.

They found what looked like spider webbing all over this hallway.

"This is so cheesy," Wally said. "Like a haunted house at Halloween that has all the clichés. Is there gonna be a skeleton around that corner?"

"If there was, it would be a real one," Emerald said uneasily. "There were spider things in that... creepy volcano thing."

"I would think we'd have noticed something like that," Wally said. "A big spider is kinda hard to miss."