Chapter 76 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 76 — The Oak Fell

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 75 — Stayfast Ink · Next: Chapter 77 — Not yet · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» System Message: Warlord Princess Donut has committed a third Atrocity.

Summary

'Warlord Princess Donut has committed a third Atrocity […] has received a new class […] will now be referred to as The Oak Fell […] has been named Champion of Nekhebit.' The Daughter opens her eyes on Meatus ('Your dick will fall off if you get an erection') and Eris, whose random effect makes one current god effect permanent: a spinner with a spiral-lipped laughing mouth ticks past Dick will fall off to Level-15 Pied Piper, the Harpocrates gift Carl never looked up. Time freezes and Eris, man-sized, stands beside him: elf with serpentine features, a striped coat to the ground, Valkyrie armour with the two-C-and-lance symbol, forked tongue. 'By the All Tree was that exhilarating […] And now I'm free.' Her card: level 250, sponsor lost, unsponsorable this season, invulnerable on this floor; half-sister of Taranis, a wine aunt with a rich dead husband; All Knowing, rarely lies because the truth is usually worse; a prime contender for the throne. She bites his ear — 'Don't die, Carl' — offers to make him a Champion if he kills Taranis, Emberus and Hellik ('I'll help'), snaps his pinkie laughing, 'Oh, I wish you weren't already married', kisses him, and tells him: the war mages traded the Gate to a merchant named Paca at the Midnight Market, an agent of Krakaren Prime, who keeps it in her stomach; give it to 'that insane Skyfowl who built the antennae underneath your castle' and maybe win; 'Also, Britney picked that axe off the ground and is now possessed.' Crack. Teleport restrictions lift; an Emberus message minimises unread. Donut rigid, Champion now, health draining; the scroll misfires. The ball has broken; thousands of frozen enemies and Meatus float up out of the funnel toward a gigantic glowing cat's paw: Bijanbi and Astral Paw. 'Break Stuff' plays across the world. They wake and scream under the paw as fleshers dissolve them. 'I just wanted to sing!' 'Daddy?' Li Na's chains lattice the wreckage around her tower and hook the Nest: 'Donut, this is all I can build. Do it.' 'I shouldn’t have picked Astral Paw […] I can feel them under my paw.' Three baps, then dozens — cherry pies through a chain-link fence, Li Na growing chains as they break — 'She did it until the screaming stopped.' Carl vomits over the parapet.

Characters

• Princess Donut — The Oak Fell, Champion of Nekhebit; a paw she must swing herself.
• Eris — Free, All Knowing, and generous with dangerous truths.
• Carl — A pinkie snapped, a kiss, a permanent Pied Piper; 'already married?'
• Li Na — A lattice of chains; the finisher.
• Meatus — 'I just wanted to sing!'

Locations

• The Nest — Time stops at eight per cent; the paw outside.
• Shanty Town — The killing ground.

Motifs

• Atrocities — The third; a class and a Champion's title.
• The gods — Eris unsponsored; Nekhebit's champion; Meatus's father.
• The Gate of the Feral Gods — In Paca's stomach at the Midnight Market.
• The Scavenger's Daughter — Pied Piper made permanent by the wheel.
• Britney's axe — 'Britney picked that axe off the ground and is now possessed.'