Chapter 67 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 67 — The Big O

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Bedlam · Previous: Chapter 66 — The Missing Piece · Next: Chapter 68 — Raul's moment · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

A graphic appeared at the bottom corner of the interface.

Summary

A card counter for every team — Donut 21, Katia and Li Na 20, Imani 15, Elle 22; Ysalte 17; Amayon six, all totems. Offence on the demon (kill six totems to talk to him), defence on the goddess (keep her deck from running dry or she nukes them from orbit), ten minutes. Carl tucks a few potions on the ground behind Donut, knowing they will turn to vinegar and remembering the debuff. Donut in the sailor cap, which fits now: 'I am the current reigning champion Persian cat in the galaxy […] a warlord of the Princess Posse […] Yes, Carl. I got this.' Elle and Imani forced to summon decks in the lobby as demons surge the door. Li Na's Xing Tian, a headless man with a cackling face in his chest ('Hold and block!'); Donut's Thief steals a demon's card ('Holy wow, look at that card!'); Amayon's flaming rock totem falls through the floor; Katia's Annie, an Útburður — a cat-sized raven with an infant's skull for a head, pacifiers and embers for a fanfare — made permanent with Timeless; Ysalte's Yago, now level 95 of the Earth Order, black-and-red headband ('Time for Yago to go to poundtown on your ass!'), who crashes through the floor and is sent to hunt the marked man. Amayon empties his hand: Gallu and Mavet, level-100 Inferior Demons, small male Slits in biker leather (Samantha whipped away screaming about a mother), and Naamah, level-120 Succubus Nest Queen, breasts defying physics — 'I choose you, stud.' Amayon: 'These are not true representations.' Bautista spamming armoured grulke frogs, trolls, small dragons. Tran falls a level, his chair sparking; Louis and Britney running from the seal. Naamah hits Carl like a bus, her fangs shatter on his tech shield ('Someone who likes it rough'), she slams him against the floor until a tentacle drags her into a gorilla-sized cloud of black tentacles under the Posse flag — Banjo, level-120 Hell Scrub, the stolen card; a Kombucha! achievement for a potion turned vinegar. Li Jun and Li Na's Legendary Master dance an Oak-Champion ghommid down. Ysalte discards her own cards to run dry; Katia's spoon troll and twin troll boys finish the demons; Ysalte's will pins Amayon's last card in his claw — Donut's Force Discard: 'Suck it, bitch!' Out of cards; one rock totem left. 'Yoink!' — Raid Stash, a unique mystic, steals an inactive card from each of the five: Tran's mother, Zhe (the Lis' cousin — 'You're not my cousin!'), Elle's sasquatch, junk from Imani, and from Donut's inactive deck Leveled-Up Frank, Sober Edition, level 100: 'Fancy seeing you here. Where’s your ring?' Tran blows a hole in the rock creature with his wheelchair. The world freezes at 7:27. Quest Update: Amayon is trapped — in his true form he lacks the power, and 'there aren't enough souls left in this dying world to even trigger the spell'; 'Refill the world with souls […] The same flavor of chowder, so to speak'; he may try an alternative spell first — stop him or convince him to wait. 'Is he in your hand?' 'No!' 'What about Midnight Express?' 'Yes, I have it!' Samantha frozen off the northeast edge with seaweed in her hair. 'You're gonna have to talk Amayon into waiting […] I'm going to run the moment we unfreeze.' 'We're on the roof of a skyscraper! Where are you running?' 'I’m coming to you!' 'I can’t move!' 'Here I come! Don't let me fall!'

Characters

• Carl — Bussed by a succubus; sees the crab in the quest text; runs off a roof.
• Princess Donut — Thief, Force Discard; holds the Midnight Express.
• Katia Grim — Annie the Útburður, forever; trolls and twins.
• Li Na — Xing Tian; her Zhe totem turned against her brother.
• Li Jun and Zhang — Backflips against his own cousin's card.
• Daniel Bautista — A blizzard of beanie animals.
• Ysalte — Discards her own deck; Raid Stash; commands Yago to hunt Louis.
• Amayon — Out of cards, then out of souls; 'What is this witchery!'
• Frank Q and Maggie My — Sober Edition, red sword: 'Where's your ring?'
• Naamah — A nest queen with broken teeth.
• Yago — Earth Order, level 95, through the floor.
• Tran — Kills the rock totem with an exploding wheelchair.
• Samantha — Whipped to sea and back.

Locations

• The FOCSA building — A roof full of holes, collapsing floor by floor.

Motifs

• T'Ghee totems — Five decks on one side; Raid Stash reaching into inventories; the god's deck as the clock.
• The Missing Piece — Souls of the same flavour: the crab.
• The Chowder War — The whole thing was about the crab's seed.
• Ysalte — Vinegar in the mouth; 'Find that one with my mark upon him.'