The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 42 - A Ghost City

Qrow

The howling wind whistles against his ear as he steps out from the swirling blue doorway opened by the Architect. It closes behind the tall mechanical man who looks around; rifle wielded in one hand as his glowing optic scans the fallen city.

The silence...

It is unnerving...

Only a day ago this place was once crawling with people all conversing and fighting with each other over the smallest things. Now it is nothing more than a ghostly reminder of what it is that they are up against, something unbelievably powerful, something that managed to take control of three Kingdoms in just thirty minutes. Hazel stands beside Qrow, towering above him with his fists clenched and the dagger he always carries tightly gripped in one fist. Their auras are up, and they can actually feel the Horridus Morbus plague against them, slowly eating away at the aura so then it can infect them.

The only one here that is safe is the Architect because he is a machine, and Penny is still too damaged from the crash to go on any more missions at the moment. Qrow takes his scroll out and he checks his and Hazel's aura level.

They are still in the green, but they have already lost a sliver of their aura just standing here in the city. "Let's make this quick...find Team B.R.N.Z and get them back home." Qrow tells the two of them, drawing his sword as he takes the first step. The sand seems to have turned grey from the plague that floats in the air, the atmosphere is in fact thick with the plague...it is horrifying to know that there are still people unconscious in this city right now.

Hazel looks round a corner as he walks beside his allies, seeing that there are bodies of people lying on the ground. It is hard to tell if they are even alive anymore, but there is a stench in the air. Like the scent of rotting bodies everywhere...it is a terrible thing to experience. The Architect walks towards a building and he presses his titanium body against the adobe wall of the building, holding his rifle upwards so then he does not accidentally discharge it into either Qrow or Hazel. They cannot afford to take any damage from anything in here; they need as much aura as they can before the plague can get through and infect them.

The Architect peers round into the long street, there is a thick blackish mist in the air, and it must be the Horridus Morbus plague. The fog actually looks like a cloud of smoke – a lot like the smoke that the Grimm are made from. The stuff that they disintegrate away into...in fact it looks identical too it. "Hazel...did Salem ever mention this in her plans?" Qrow inquires as he stands beside him, not meaning the question in an insulting way – just in a curious way. But he can tell from the look on Hazel's face...that this was never in her long term plan.

"She never said anything about a plague..." Hazel states with a shaken voice from what surrounds him. The wind screams as it blows past their heads, not only is the plague present but it appears that a storm is brewing around them too. The picking up winds and the amount of sand that is being blown into the city, looks like a Sandstorm is about to hit them soon.

The Architect lowers his rifle after aiming into the street; there is no sign of any Grimm or even Acolytes of Lien activity in the city. "It looks clear, come on." The Architect whispers as he walks forward, and Qrow and Hazel stay close to him as well. The fog just gets thicker and thicker the further that they get. Distant howls of the Grimm echo in the distance of the abandoned city.

"This is really unnerving..." The Architect points out, which surprises them considering he is an Artificial Intelligence from a dead civilisation.

"Would've thought you'd be used to silent cities." Qrow points out, not disagreeing with him, just surprised by that fact.

"I'm used to destroyed cities...not fully intact ones that are this silent." The Architect states, moving slowly and carefully through the abandoned streets. Qrow can sense the ghostly memories of what this city was like before, scum and thieves everywhere scrambling for food everywhere. The city was already suffering from Famine and Disease, now a disease has completely claimed every single life here. That is if they are alive and not dead, they've not checked any of them.