Chapter 71 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 71 — Donkey Kong

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 70 — City of Broken Dreams · Next: Chapter 72 — Diah · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Over the past few months, I’d experienced so many moments of pure, unadulterated terror, I

Summary

Reflex before terror: Carl drinks his last Levitation potion at the railing, rises out of the funnel, and dumps his whole 'Shit Just Hit' folder — some twenty Waffle Makers, two No Disassembles, two cheese cutters, five hundred hob-lobbers, uncounted dynamite — in the direction of the Piccadilly, then Walks on Air three-quarters of the way and drops onto a roof on ring 64. The generator dies in a secondary blast; every window shatters; 'Your attack has activated the city defense system'; a chunk of aqueduct falls and lava spreads over the top rings. Hundreds of fleeing children and shopkeepers on ring 66. A black gale-strike tower locks on with Inexorable ('until one of you is paste'), punching holes through the ground; a yellow hobble tower spits goo; he rolls into Shanty Town. Donut: Lucia is shouting for Mongo; Bomo and the others are dead. 'Donkey Kong': the Nest's stairs become a ramp and barrels roll — 'THE BARRELS ARE MAKING HER MADDER'. Britney: Juice Box is furious, the towers are on, they have retreated into the college. Harpocrates for the first time: a slim, young, human-looking kaiju in torn white-and-gold robes stained red at the front, taller than the Nest, arguing with two ogres. Ferdinand dives into Carl's ditch, tail scorched, hat cockeyed: 'Why are you lying down on the job?'; 'Juice Box hates me. She's meaner than Bill'; 'that time I shot a lightning bolt at Mungo.' Carl: 'You're from Earth. I want you alive.' Hi-Yo Silver pulls Rend to Carl's previous spot. Gloom Wraith Phase around the tower; inside, Toyotomi, Bomo and the mages lie cleaved in half by one spell — Toyotomi dead-dead, Bomo's contract gone. Li Na follows him in, her demonic face bloody: she gouged out her eye for Li Jun's celestial one, which slows time. She hands him a screaming eyeless tentacled bottle: Hell-Kissed Potion of Conscription, level 18, brewed in the Nothing by Krakaren Prime, who 'prepares for a war she considers inevitable' — the in-dungeon Krakaren supplied the war mages; works on floors 9, 12, 15, 17 and 18; duplicated with Jun's scroll. She will use the original on Harpocrates and save the others 'before they, too, fall victim to your chaos.' Up the oiled ramp on Sticky Feet through a half-working anti-magic zone: 'Give me your dinosaur, and I will leave. It is justice I seek'; Donut: 'plenty enough room in this world for another dead rottweiler!' Lucia crawls the ceiling with Gus on an invisible leash. Donut throws the dog; Lucia tumbles down in a bobsled tangle with Raul, Donut's eighth-floor card, now level 110 and mythic, 'Daddy Carl' — 'You will kowtow'; her shield fails; 'I don’t want to play anymore.' 'No. Not like this. Never like this.' Carl smashes the conscription potion on her head.

Characters

• Carl — Bombs a theater with a whole folder; conscripts a child.
• Lucia Mar — Crawling the ceiling of the Nest; 'I don't want to play anymore.'
• Li Na — Her brother's eye in her socket; hands over the potion.
• Ferdinand — Brave and terrified in a ditch; 'meaner than Bill.'
• Raul — Mythic now; 'The heavens laugh at your temerity, churl!'
• Harpocrates — Seen at last: a young kaiju with a red-stained robe.
• Toyotomi — Cleaved in half with Bomo and the mages.

Locations

• Larracos — Rings 64 to 66 under the towers; the aqueduct falls; lava on the top rings.
• The Nest — Donkey Kong: a ramp, oil, barrels, an anti-magic zone Lucia breaks.

Motifs

• Conscription — A hell-kissed potion from Krakaren Prime; 'Never like this.'
• The city defence towers — Inexorable; a gale tower digs a ditch under him.
• The Krakaren — Prime brews in the Nothing; the dungeon's version arms the mages.