Chapter 62 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 62 — A non-team entity

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: Open Hostilities · Previous: Chapter 61 — The War Mage Rebellion · Next: Chapter 63 — Into the Madness · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Behind me, Elle groaned as she woke from her unconscious state.

Summary

War Chief Stalwart has fallen, credit to three of the War Mage Rebellion, which is 'not an active team', so the Bone Clan's assets go to Team Retribution, which holds its throne room; the King's Point throne room still sits capturable in open air. Donut got partial credit and it was not announced. Elle wakes: 'I haven't been walloped like that since my bachelorette party'; the elf pulled back at the last moment as if trying not to kill her; her skin now electric and gritty when Carl lifts her. Victory: a 'non-team entity' was never a thing until now. Carl collects the four war mage bodies before their heads explode; Stalwart's items are ordinary. Eris, across the map, laughs Hekla's laugh and screams to be ejected: Rosetta explains her sponsor is Nami, a model and influencer who outbid the Priory and had surgery to look and sound like the dead crawler — 'They usually wait until the person is dead.' 'OMG IS THERE ONE OF ME?' Florin is toe to toe with a force now under NPC orders and nobody knows whether to fight; demons take corpses; lava is running into the riverbed toward Larracos. Justice Light, panicked: 'You lost the gate? […] I need it!' — a plan nobody told Carl, like Rosetta's whip and Juice Box's spies; Shi Maria under the torrent: 'You're a puppet, dancing on their stage.' Juice Box and Ferdinand have been pulled to answer questions; she says keep the plan rolling. Victory pieces it together: the war mages broke a conscription that should not break with a combination of Pull spells, Stalwart may have ejected them to make them stop, they teleported straight to Juice Box and Ferdinand, and Drick has called foul on his own team for illegal interference; a full quorum is convened. Edgar marks Epitome Tagg fleeing near the Dream castle on zebras with a decoy in the fancy hat; Eris is in Donut's line; the Sledge fires fast movers and a chain ripper ('I kill for a living'). Tran is bleeding from the artillery; the FUPA is fighting Dreamers and demons; Louis has spent an Emergency Repair scroll. Boomer opens the Reaver assault; the Sledge: 'Robots go boom.' Elle recasts Subterfuge. Samantha is left by the gate, to be a kite for whatever comes out, and looks up: 'That's a dragon!'

Characters

• Elle McGibbons — 'My pride is hurt more than anything.'
• Baroness Victory — Defines a thing that did not exist an hour ago.
• Eris — Driven by an influencer surgically remade as Hekla; 'How do I eject?'
• Justice Light — 'I need it!'
• Juice Box — Summoned to a hearing; the war mages went to her.
• Epitome Tagg — Flees on a zebra behind a decoy hat.
• Samantha — Bait for the gate; 'That's a dragon!'
• The Sledge — 'I kill for a living.'

Locations

• The Reaver territory — A clearing of orc gore and a gate about to birth a god.

Motifs

• The war mages — A non-team entity; heads in Carl's Graveyard.
• The gods — Eris as a dead crawler's face; sponsors remade by surgery.
• The river in Carl's head — 'No longer a river […] a constant, never-ending torrent. And it wasn't water.'
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — 'You're always on rails.'
• Waking the NPCs — Juice Box's plans, made without telling anyone.