Chapter 55 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 55 — Head Banger; Milk

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 54 — The Waffle Maker; Hellik's message · Next: Chapter 56 — Justice Light; the Nest · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

<Note Added by Crawler Carl, 25th Edition>

Summary

Carl's Cookbook notes: alarm traps can now play recordings and playlists (Justice Light's advice, volume still fixed); this season's mantaurs berserk as a group to a certain music, hence the boomboxes on the fourth floor. 'The Sepsis Whore of the Blood Sultanate has fallen. Credit […] to Kandy "Bigs" Newton.' The Sultanate is defeated and its assets split between the Whore's surviving blood relatives, Warlord Princess Donut and General Katia Grim — and forfeited to the Posse. Never-Ending Mana lets Carl cast Heal on a loop while his body jigsaws back; Bigs is level 29, bulldog-sized, pink-haired, pierced, with a hatchet growing from her head. Vinata's white was makeup; in death she is grey and small; Carl takes her corpse. 'This boss battle ain't over until you get out of the club!' Samantha, a charred husk with 'Miss Me?' intact, wants help killing 'this eagle kidnapper imposter': she went to her mother Theia's temple as promised and found a male skyfowl — the sponsor, a former-crawler activist Rosetta would not name, appearing in his own form, which does not fool Samantha. Victory: sponsors making gods act against their nature is cheating, and she has reminded both the Maestro and 'Rectrix' of it — a name Carl half-knows. Katia and the others are trapped in the lobby with mantaurs, Basilica Guard ogres from below, and gods fighting each other; Prepotente says the map-maker guild on the second floor. Diwata is in the hallway having sex with and fighting Vertumnus; the hall is vines. Brother Widespread Tempest, level-125 Ogre Basilica Cleric Guard, Untouchable, worships Taranis: the ogres who hold the Basilica door on the twelfth against gods, 'the tow truck drivers of the Ascendency', and if they leave their post the halls' bored gods may wander untethered. 'You die now.' Operation Head Banger: Black Nimbus on the ogre — the 'Un' fades and gods' death marks, 'a lot of them', circle his head, 'Oh, fuck' — and two alarm traps playing Megadeth's 'Holy Wars… The Punishment Due', Louis's choice; 'A Mantaur Mosh Pit is about to form'; the ogre runs. Then Li Na's tattoo skill, Profane Iron: chains rip out of Carl's own flesh, two he can steer, and they stuff Nimbus potions into mantaurs, choke, trip and tear a head off with its spine while the berserkers attack their own nimbused fellows. A second ogre gets a potion and runs. Katia, Prepotente, Li Jun and Zhang come round the far corner with Bianca and Annie; Prepotente pushes a wall panel: two hidden guilds. 'Again?' Zhang shakes his fist at the ceiling: 'I'm alive!' The guildmaster is half frog, half bat, and Carl knows the wings from her writing. 'Milk?' She knows him the same instant. 'Child, come here.' Wrapped in leathery wings, he takes the mask off for a moment and sobs. Donut: nothing happened at the castle, no digger needed. 'It was easy here, too. Went off without a hitch.' A last note to Drakea, dead, who hated the naga: 'It's getting harder every day to keep myself from drowning.'

Characters

• Milk — The sixth edition, in the flesh: 'Child, come here.'
• Carl — Profane Iron from his own skin; a mask off in a calligrapher's arms.
• Kandy Bigs Newton — Credited with a warlord; hunting an adjutant with a head-axe.
• Samantha — Charred; her mother was a male eagle.
• Brother Widespread Tempest — An Untouchable ogre, made touchable, who runs.
• Li Na — Her chain skill, lent, saves the lobby.
• Prepotente — Knows the wall panel.
• Li Jun and Zhang — Zhang lives, against a sign promising a double jackpot if he does.
• Baroness Victory — Has reminded 'both the Maestro and Rectrix' that making gods act against nature is cheating.
• Princess Donut — Told it went off without a hitch.

Locations

• Club Vanquisher — A mosh pit, a hallway of vines, and two hidden guilds.

Motifs

• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — The Sultanate defeated; assets split between Donut and Katia as blood relatives.
• The gods — Basilica Guards, Untouchable by Taranis; Diwata and Vertumnus; the Maestro and Rectrix reminded of the rules.
• Donut's songs — Megadeth as a berserk trigger; playlists on traps.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Milk found; a note to Drakea.
• The river in Carl's head — 'Harder every day to keep myself from drowning.'