Relic of the Future: Chapter 116

"O-Oh my lord," Summer whispered. "It – The… The entire tunnel is made of dust!"

As far as the eye could see. Numerous crystals, some small, others as big as them, in colours ranging from pink to blue to yellow to red. A dizzying and dazzling hue that reflected off their faces like stained glass windows. The crystals jutting up from the floor cut through the path ahead, making new obstacles they'd have to work their way around.

And the air was hotter still. Much hotter.

"I guess dust grows more in hot temperatures," he said. "Or it produces heat. Volcanic rock, maybe?" He touched one. "No. It's cold to the touch." Running his finger to the top, he winced and drew back, blood dripping down the tip. "And sharp."

"Sure!" Summer hissed. "Let's spill blood on the crazy dust in a magical temple for rituals and stuff. Great idea, Jaune!" Despite her panic, nothing happened. No magic, crazy chanting or demons popping out the ground. His blood dripped down the edge and to the floor. "What now? We're going to get cut to pieces trying to fit through there."

"We have aura. Let me try."

Jaune sheathed Crocea Mors and held his scroll ahead, turning sideways and stepping carefully around the first crystal. His foot touched something sharp and he hissed, looking down and better adjusting his step to avoid a smaller but no less jagged piece of dust.

It was a tight fit, and crystals scraped along his back, but with aura protecting him and a little effort he managed to push past the first of the crystals and then duck under a second, crawling along to another spot he could stand up in.

[...]

"If there were any Grimm here, they'd have killed themselves on the dust ages ago." That was a remarkably good point. Literally, a point. If the Grimm moved too quickly in here, they'd impale themselves as easily as he nearly had.

[...]

Turning on his scroll, he shone the beam down. Light flared off the crystals, reflecting wildly until it touched something deeper down. Something that the light bounced off, but which didn't glow. Something that was moving, strung between the two crystalline walls of the crevasse by long, fleshy strands of… something. Skin. Grimm flesh.

It moved slightly. Pulsed.

[...]

Stepping to the edge of the platform, Jaune gripped onto a rather large shard of dust sticking out the wall and drove the butt of his gun into its base. He worked it in again and again, causing a small crack that quickly spread. Eventually, his weight proved too much, and the fracture grew bigger still, the crystal groaning.

Jumping off before it could fall, he watched the thing break free and topple down. A sharp blade of pure crystal that couldn't fail to strike the creature below. The dust struck one of its tendrils and scythed through it.

He expected more effort, but that one cut strand caused the whole thing to lurch against the other wall, which drove the other strands into more sharp dust, slicing through and weakening those. In a chain reaction that took only a few seconds, the thing toppled down, losing grip entirely and falling out of sight with a loud, thick splash.

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 116