RATTLE
RATTLE
CLACK
"Fucking door! Which prick locked it?"
It didn't take long for Corvo to reach here from his battlefield, if you could call it that, with the guards. But of course it would be another sewer way on his seemingly unending journey back towards the houndpitts pub.
He rattles the door forcefully, attempting with the hope of any luck to somehow break the through the lock. That wish though, stays wholly unfulfilled.
He angrily kicks the metal door, more out of frustration than anything else, but it does not even budge a little .
"Think Corvo, think!"
He paces back and forth alongside the pathway in the sewer, tapping his head in frustration and frantically searching around for something to jog his fragile memories.
And comes to a stop in front of another locked doorway. This one was hastily boarded up with a dozen wooden planks and metal sheets.
What really caught his focus, though, was the body-sized opening at the top that allows pipes to run through, with a weird amount of space that you would make you think it was left there intentional.
"Let's see…"
Tap tap tap.
"Granny rags…. She has a master key for the entire sewer way…. Slackjaw was locked up and going to be cooked? Hmmmm, do I have to go?"
Finally managing to bring forth the memories, Corvo understood his current mission objective and where it would take him. Though hesitant because he now knew where he was going.
Looking back at his original location, the cursed-looking door remains an unbreakable barrier in every. Single. Game.
"Hmm…"
Stepping forward, his mark glows its usual light on a visible show of his intention. Corvo violently swings his hand out, manifesting a fierce gust of wind that slams into the locked gate, that amount of damage it deals to the gate… is nothing.
'Fuck! again.'
His mark sparks up with its multi-coloured light once again as he activates wind blast another time, this time the unseen wind takes the form of a tight cylinder shape, one that packs a bigger punch with its condensed form.
And door significantly… that same amount of damage. That of course being zero.
Sighh
Turning around, Corvo walks back to that entrance leading to what would be a massive annoyance. He leaps up and grasps a sturdy pipe(pause) and swings into a jump that lands him on the opposite side.
'Now then, let's get this over and done with.'
….
…
..
.
"Haaah haaah haaah."
Corvo pulls himself up from the water onto a metal bar, grabbing the mask from his face and just allowing himself to breathe.
'….jesus, forgot how heavy all this bloody equipment is. Didn't think I would just fucking sink straight to the bottom instantly. Sighhh, good whatever this void energy did to me that I have a larger lung capacity.'
Though he only allows for a few moments of rest and recovery before forcing himself back up, much to the protest of his body and lungs of course, but Corvo ignored them and continued.
He needs to be as fast as possible.
Above him are a few hastily thrown together metal flights of stairs. Most of it is in pieces and falling on top of each other, but still largely climbable, at least for him.
And climb it he does. Going up the stairs while finding weirdly placed packs of ammunition, but welcomed nonetheless.
He also finds some of the fake Sokolov health potion made by slackjaw, most of which was most likely left by the man himself in a hurry.
'This is it, I guess. No turning back now.'
Reaching the top he finds more metal doors. These though are both slightly ajar, so clearly they were at least unlocked.
Before he even reaches them Corvo catches a creepy whispery voice echoing out into the cavern from beyond the gates.
"I'm going to boil off the nasty flesh and sinew and carve a pretty song on your bones."
The voice is a weird blend of mocking and complete indifference, something that could only come from a madwoman.
"Heeeeyyy! Someone come kill this crazy witch. I can make you rich!"
"Quiet now. Granny needs to concentrate."
Her tone turns familiar and affectionate as she sternly scolds the man.
"Don't kill me! Granny Rags, stop! Stop what you're doing! Can we at least talk about it?!"
The man's plea is desperate and entirely devoid of any hope, as if his begging was merely something his shut-off brain was looping on autopilot.
But the response he gets shuts it down in an instant, bringing the room into what can only be assumed to be its usual silence.
"My knives gotta be nice and sharp to cut into your skeleton, Slackjaw. Nice and
sharp."
Not even looking back at the begging man, not even answering him to deny his request. Just a short sentence, describing what is his fate. Not a threat, merely informing.
Seeing that nothing more could be gleaned from a pointless back and forth, Corvo pushes past both of the gates and steps into another giant cavern. This one with a stark difference and not just a flooded pathway like the last but some kind of broken down water station, one that was converted into a base of sorts, or more accurately- a home.
'What I don't understand though, is how the ceiling is so high. I mean it's clearly not connected to any building outside and we are definitely not that far…. Must be some voodoo shit.'
Yes the impossibly high cavern ceiling, with hundreds if not thousands of metal pipes running to and from each side seem to connect various runic inscriptions carved into the walls, meeting overhead to complete the circuit.
But that is not even the strangest thing about this place.
More runic inscriptions are placed all around the cave, fashioned in what an outsider could guess would be magic circles, pulses and 'breathe' with an other worldly light and energy.
'No, it doesn't matter. It dosent feel as if it could be used against me anyway, not if I don't let it.'
And there she stands, granny rags.
Straight ahead of Corvo, standing next to a giant section of ribs, stirring a bathtub filled with unknown substances while whispering her insane musings.
And directly behind her is Slackjaw, leader of the bottle street boys. Another complicated person. His very morality and motivations are a walking contradiction, unable to decide between helping others and extorting them.
He's the first to show any visible sign of seeing Corvo's appearance, but he's definitely not the first to notice, Corvo could feel it in his very bones that even without eyes, the old baggage could see through him.
A silent hope appears in the man's sunken eyes in a way that almost revitalises him. Soon, it turns into a calculated malice and he shuts up, becoming deathly silent as he waits for my approach.
Corvo enters the clearing, walking over to the only two people there.
Granny Rags is the first to get any words out though. Turning around sharply and staring Corvo deep in the eyes with her own clear white pupils, eyes that visibly show her own blindness… the only indication of such a disability
"Here's my love. Are you ready to help get Slackow's bones? Granny has some birthday gifts for you. I've been saving them up, in case you ever came back to me."
She looks expectantly at Corvo. Going as far to bat her eyes at him 'cutely' while holding her hands to her chest 'bashfully'. And those terms are used loosely.
"I don't have time for your crazy fucking games today, you mental hag. Just give me the master key and I will leave."
His words come out harsh and sharp as his frustrations reach a boiling point.
"Pffft! hahah-"
A snort of laughter comes out of slackjaw mouth involuntarily hearing Corvos words, only barely managing to catch himself and shut up.
Granny rags? She just freezes up. Her 'cute' act was completely seized before turning into an expressionless, well expression. She stands up straight, her weird crazy act seeming to come undone as she just looks at Corvo deeply for a moment.
Seeing Corvos impatiently fidget with his holstered gun, Granny Rags lets out a deep tired sigh, sad that her game has been spoiled.
"Sighhh. Well, I'm sufficiently disappointed. If you're not going to help me 'dear' , then I suggest that you leave."
She looks at Corvo with more hostility now, glaring at him childishly before flicking her hair back dramatically at him and turning around and fiddling with her suspicious stew.
"….Fucking mad hag."
Corvo almost growls out in pure annoyance, completely fed up with the re-occurring act. His pistol comes out of its holster seamlessly, spinning into its place in his hand, already aimed directly onto tbe old woman's head
BANG
The gunshot rips through the barrel of the pistol with the force of a high-calibre weapon, completely shredding through the clueless old woman's neck and sending her corpse flying away, hitting the ground heavily as it lands halfway across the cave.
And for a moment, nothing happens. Silence takes hold of the atmosphere with its cold death-like grip as it always does in situations like this.
"C-Corvo!"
Slackjaw's nervous voice reaches Corvos's ears before he can decide his next move. But even before he had the chance to be shocked at his name being dropped like this, so suddenly, his next words cause him to pause.
"Granny Rags is immortal! She can't be killed like this! She has a cameo, one with a picture inside, though it looks nothing like the witch it is her-."
BOOOM
The still corpse of Granny Rags, once still and with the life completed drained from her old vessel, now abruptly explodes into action.
A shockwave emanates from her as each portion of her flesh splits, segmenting into a hundred rats. All of them with one mission.
Kill Corvo, devour his flesh.
"Shit!"
Corvos's shadow explodes into action as a response. It covers the ground on a circle, with him at the epicentre as the anchor powering it.
His own large swarm manifest from the shadows, taking a good chunk of his already dwindling mana as a result.
The two groups of admittedly large rats charge at each other with clear bloodlust evident in their crimson beady eyes. They all clash, meeting in the middle for an epic battle that will go down in history for the future generations… not.
As the two groups meet, all of the Corvos rats completely seize up out of nowhere. The glowing crimson rage-filled eyes dim, growing madder and crazier in seconds.
And Corvos's connection to the murder machines snaps like a thin string.
The man himself looking on at the army of rats running at him, now almost double its previous sight, in pure disbelief.
The emotion soon turned back into anger which was double its previous iteration.
The loud shout of Granny Rags, who was supposed to have transformed into the rats, comes from his other side, drawing his attention more than the current situation.
"BONES! BONES OF THE GREAT LEVIATHAN!! PROTECT ME!"
More shockwaves emanate from her fragile form, this one created with more purpose, causing the magic circle she teleported into to pulsate with further intensity and glow ever brighter.
"I know the comeo don't look like her. But it's supposed to be her. When she was young. That's where she gets her powers. Throw it into the Furnace! Burn the cameo- and you take that away!"
Slackjaw's urgent voice reaches him desperately as he prepares for battle ahead, grabbing a spring razor and a spiked grenade in one hand.
"Yeah? Then where in the void is it, genius?"
Corvo responds with a muffled voice, teeth cracking as he uses his mouth to pull the grenade's pin, furthering the simmering explosion in his gut.
He throws the grenade first. The spikes pierce and attach to the first rat it hits, travelling along with its rodent ride.
BOOOOOM
The explosion instantly decimates the rats. The flesh and viscera flying everywhere before it soon all dissolve back into shadow, the only proof of their previous existence being that blackened stone.
"The cameo in her room, just over there."
Slackjaw answers, this time more calmly as his emotions start to settle down in response to the heightening of Corvos own. He nods his head in the direction of granny rags hut, the place that houses a bedroom and much more.
"It should be under her pillow. At least, that is what the crazy witch said. Fucking weirdo."
Corvo launches the spring razor next, the contraption latching onto a rat as well before shredding them into nothing.
But just as Corvo is about to heave a sigh of relief, finally destroying the giant swarm, more and more rats start to pour into the room from the stairs as if the horde was flowing water.
'Fuck it.'
He breaks off into a spring. Jumping over the boiling bathtub and the growing number of hungry rats, sending himself as fast as he could go, to the point where he reached Granny Rags in merely a few seconds from his ore joys point in the cave.
Her visions chanting hats for a moment as she catches traces of his movement. Just in time really, I'm time to catch a heel kick straight to the chin.
"ACK-."
BANG
The kick sends her flying backwards, hitting the cave wall just as hard as the kick hit her. But unlike what he expected, she doesn't go unconscious, nor does the pool of rats stop its ceaseless charge.
Her body turns into another swarm that madly screech in anger before charging with reignited fury.
He explodes into another mad dash, his pupils expanding to cover the entirety of his eyeballs, painting them in an abyssal black colour- thus the world opens up even further to his already enhanced vision.
Corvo locates granny rags in an instant. Standing atop another magic circle, she begins another round of chanting, with words that become increasingly less comprehensible to his mind.
Forgoing his equipped pistol, he exchanged it with another of his trust weapons.
The crossbow.
An offensive tool that deals incredible piercing damage with a range of hundreds of metres, a weapon fit for a master assassin. And though less convenient than the wristbow that recently came into corvos Possession, it is significantly more potent in its abilities.
He raises the tool to chest height, a incinary bolt preloaded, then aims at the mad granny without much thought or calculation and fires.
The bolt shoots out of the automatic crossbow with pure force that has the strength to rival an un-modified pistol, instantly travelling the distance between the two opponents and accurately hitting granny rags om the chest.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
A blood curdleing screams tears from her mouth as she catches fire instantly, with the flammability of a dry piece of kindling.
Her voice soon turns hoarse and cuts off, yet even then, she still dosent separate into another swarm of rats.
And under the corvos mask an insane smile etches itself onto his face as pure glee and dopamine fill his veins.
"HAHAHAH! HOW'S THAT, YOU FUCKING HAG!! NOT SO SCARY NOW HUH?!"
And his voice equally as insane echoes throughout the cave, along with a peal of mad laughter that barely sounds like his own.
'Calm yourself, Corvo. If you can best me and usurp my everything, then you can't let a witch like this take hold of your mind like this.'
A voice, calm and experienced, rings throughout smoothly Corvks mind like they were his own thoughts, but they give him pause and throw a bucket of ice-cold water on his burning emotions.
'What?'
He freezes up completely, the blink of the tip of his fingers dripping away like oil, completely escaping him.
'Daud?'
———
Word count: 2,666