The Knights of Grimm - Act 4 - Whispers of Arkhonex

Chapter 27 - The Map Room

Ruby

The icy cold winds may have subsided after the revelation of the Whisperer's existence in these mountains, but that does not mean the temperature has suddenly gone up. It is still biting into their skin, and despite returning back to the Prowler with Kragen in Yenna's arms. Qrow and Winter are both shivering. "Clear the floor!" Jaune demands as he and Oscar start pushing the supplies out of the way so then they can gently put the cold Kragen Nox on the ground.

"Come on, Kragen wake up. Don't you give up on me now, you stubborn old man!" Yenna demands as she uses her stabilizing magic on him, but none of that will matter if they do not close that wound of his. Ruby crouches down beside him with Pyrrha, holding his ice-cold hand. He must have gone into shock from the cold as well, just making his situation much more perilous for him.

"Gods...he's freezing..." Ruby whimpers as she and Pyrrha both press their hands against his wound, Kragen's thick and cold blood sticking to their palms. His skin has gone pale but somehow the old man is still breathing, refusing to die after all the years he has survived. Ruby is shivering but not from the cold like Qrow and Winter are. She looks at her father by blood and Winter. "Get some blankets, one for Kragen and two for yourselves. Warm yourself up, aura or not the last thing you want is hypothermia." Ruby demands, and Oscar gets up, running over to the cupboard, because luckily when they were searching this Atlesian Prowler they found some survival materials, one of them are a bunch of blankets. They have been using a few but luckily there are around five others in there, so he gets three.

He throws two of the grey fluffy blankets to Qrow and Winter, and they start to wrap themselves up to stop the hypothermia from setting in, sitting down in the corner as they breathe slowly to calm their heavily beating hearts. He walks over to Kragen and crouches down, he and his girlfriend help wrap him up on the floor, leaving the wound revealed so then they can mend the damage done by Kannix' cannon. "What happened to him?" Jaune asks Qrow and Winter as he sets Crocea Mors down on the ground beside him, not noticing the faintly shimmering glyphs engraved onto the Isomacium Blade.

"Kannix...I'm not sure how it started but Winter and I came across them fighting...well...he was thrown past us and then Kannix attacked me." Qrow explains, shuddering from the cold that still lives in his body, remembering when Kannix leapt through the snow at him and slammed his blade directly into Harbinger in its sword form. The look of insanity on his face was utterly terrifying, his hunger for revenge has grown to savage levels, levels that may never be satisfied.

Who knows where his lust for blood will stop if he ends up killing Kragen? Who will die next? Kassius? Velvet? Jaune? Ruby? Pyrrha? Will he even try and go against Vir Nominis Umbra?

Those driven by Revenge always find themselves seeking more blood and death after they kill their target because when doing it for long enough, that hatred becomes all they ever know. Ruby and Pyrrha's hands are now soaked with Kragen's blood as they try and stop his bleeding on his ice-cold body. "It's not stopping...what do we do?" Pyrrha asks them, and Yenna sighs, knowing it to be the only way. She looks back at Cinder, seeing her standing there, igniting the flame to cauterise his would. The very action of igniting the palm with that intention causes the Fall Maiden to retreat, shuddering when phantom pains of Fury's Palm burning into her bare chest when Salem almost broke her.

"We need to cauterise his wound...I don't know if it will save him, but it will stop the bleeding." Yenna states, but before she presses it against her beloved's wound the Architect shouts as he walks into the ship behind them, pulling his poncho from his body and slamming his rifle down on the table that folds out from the side of the wall.

"STOP!" The Architect yells, and they all turn to see him walking towards Yenna.

"Stop? Why? He is bleeding out right now, I need to cauterise it!" Yenna argues, but the Architect looks at her and then at Kragen, crouching down as he looks at the wound.