Chapter 72 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 72 — Falling Up

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Bedlam · Previous: Chapter 71 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Next: Epilogue — Homecoming Queen · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

I awakened to find myself clutched in Louis’s arms as we ran through the city.

Summary

Carl wakes in Louis's arms, running through a burning city. Mongo's right wing is gone — Carl did that — though a vinegar-enhanced potion will regrow it. No crawlers were lost; the losses are a couple of strippers, all the outside slugs, Tran's chair, Li Jun's eye and Carl's hair. Donut's Hole spell got them out before the building fell. Samantha breaks up with Carl to go back to her king. Donut ripped Shi Maria's card the moment the battle ended, and Carl still feels the tattoo.

Katia let Donut take Paz's card after the goddess died. Katia's Bolt of Ophiotaurus, Princess Formidable's fourth-floor gift, made the kill, but the credit and the gods' anger fell on Paz: 'Paz Lo. The God Predator. Level 101 Former Crawler.' Katia says ripping it is what he wanted, and Donut rips it. 'Goodbye, Paz.'

The Missing Piece, Part Two, 'Falling Up', starts a thirty-minute timer. Amayon goes home to war on his brother, and his spell, buffed by all of them, covers the whole world. The heavens will open region by region, nearest Cuba first, and everything living, built or carried will be sucked up; those beneath a sealed chamber will have its walls teleport away at the portal. Everyone but Imani is sent home to use the stairwells manually. Carl reconsiders the orchid: trusting Huanxin changed once Odette became a goddess.

The warlords still refuse to vote. Carl files his first Emergency Action Item: let the audience decide pending items, or the AI. It passes at once, and viewers vote every item in thirty seconds. The Dream's long-range artillery and the Reavers' accelerated pet levelling pass. The survivor counter returns: 38,532 at the floor's start, 33,804 now, about five thousand dead — shockingly low. Then the Posse's own item, 'Remove Safety Protections For Faction Sponsors': 'This item has been passed by a 98% audience vote.' A tenth team passes at 52%: Home Team, based in Larracos, with co-warlords Juice Box and Sir Ferdinand.

Katia's whole arm was burned off and regrown; the Shi Maria quest survived the rip. Imani's wings enfold them: 'We gain things, and we lose them. That’s what happens in war.' Donut, holding her first celestial box, does not want Katia to eat the flower. Donut sees the jacket glowing — not an aardvark but a giant centipede — and a voice warns Carl he did not diffuse his soul power from the Scavenger's Daughter: 'I need you alive, Carl. I need you reasonably sane. We have so much work to do.' The heavens open over Cuba, and Carl, thinking of Asher, vows he will not be broken. 'Welcome, Crawler […] Welcome to Faction Wars.'

Characters

• Carl — Bald, level 73, a voice in his chest and another in his jacket; a vow to a dead brother.
• Princess Donut — Rips two cards; gasps at Gravy Boat; a celestial box from a garbage company.
• Imani — Wings round them; 'That's what happens in war.'
• Katia Grim — Regrows an arm as if nothing; keeps the bolt for the Maestro.
• Paz Lo — The God Predator, a Former Crawler, torn in half by request.
• Mongo — One wing, awaiting a potion.
• Samantha — Breaks up with Carl; returns to her king.
• Tran — Legless and chairless, carried.
• Li Jun and Zhang — One eye; not yet apologised to.
• Juice Box — Co-warlord of the Home Team.
• Ferdinand — Sir Ferdinand, co-warlord of Larracos.
• Louis and Firas — 'Dude.'
• Elle McGibbons — 'Two weens?'
• Dong Quixote — Silent for Steve.
• Mordecai — Turns the counter back on.
• Amayon — Home to war on a brother.

Locations

• Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar — A trench under a neon X; the heavens opening.
• Havana — Scoured clean; ghosts left behind.

Motifs

• The crawler count — 38,532 to 33,804: the slaughter that did not happen.
• Faction Wars — Protections off at 98%; a Home Team under Juice Box and Sir Ferdinand; a bigger field; two emergency items in reserve.
• The System AI — Ask nicely, give options; 'nothing artificial about it'; its own action item.
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — A quest that outlives the card; 'in a different way.'
• The Scavenger's Daughter — A centipede in the skulls; 'I need you reasonably sane. We have so much work to do.'
• Carl's family — 'I needed to make him proud'; a vow through hell on hands and knees.
• Waking the NPCs — Paz freed by tearing; 'Former Crawler.'
• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — The orchid no one wants used; 'there had to be another way.'
• Found family — 'We don’t give up on family'
• The Nebulars — Pontifex Shine reading the fine print; angrier in a few days.