Chapter 78 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 78 — The Scavenger's daughter is with us now

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 77 — Not yet · Next: Chapter 79 — Tart · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

We now stood before the absolutely wrecked castle of the Semeru, who’d built it as a capst

Summary

The wrecked Semeru castle at the bottom of Larracos, once living wood in gem-inlaid stone, now rot and lightning-scarred walls, acid puddles the bartenders are neutralising; the idle dwarven digger with two Semeru on its shoulder. Carl thinks of Priestly: 'Stab, stab, stab.' 'Slam, slam, slam.' Louis is unconscious in a shifting-walled castle full of robot dogs. In the warlord chat Akuma: 'Hey, underwear boy […] Kill that old lady for me' — not Elle ('the one on the Four Seasons path […] Keep her alive if you wish for us to face Scolopendra and survive'), Agatha, forced on them for system access, author of every action item but Conscription, who slipped away; they never wanted the castle, only to test the potions and find 'the Scavenger's daughter, who was hidden within the castle […] She is with us now'; Agatha can jump to the Waiting Room and reappear outside an open stairwell — 'You will have to find her on the 10th […] She seeks to kill us all […] Everybody and everything.' Tagg: 'That orc princess was right. We should have blown the failsafe weeks ago.' Donut, styled The Champion of Nekhebit, calls Akuma a saggy twat and gets her name back from Tagg (notification menu, section four): 'WE'RE STILL GOING TO KILL YOU, THOUGH!' Akuma leaves the realm; the Rebellion is defeated with no assets. Victory and Zev go quiet. Mordecai on the Scavenger: 'the in-dungeon one or the fairy tale?' — later; the flower ceremony for Donut and Katia must wait. Florin: Lucia is 'the queen of the triple tap'; he will not take a deal — 'I want to go down fighting' — and Jurgen never will while Lucia's fate is tied to the kinder facility where Heidi, his pregnant wife, vanished: 'Protecting the kids?' Donut on the Sledge's shoulder, who mourns Bomo; Edgar cannot tattoo a rock. Justice Light, furious: 'GET THE GATE BACK, AND IT WON'T MATTER'; Tipid: he has not said what for. Carl, meeting Rosetta's eyes and remembering her sobbing over Rust, tells him: Paca's stomach. 'She is an ambassador for the in-game's version of the Apothecary […] There have been seasons when my shop was within the market.' Rosetta nods and wipes her eyes. Big Tina, boa scorched, killed a tower and refuses her pregnant mother. Florin: 'just don't let her do that to us again.' Imani and Juice Box find nothing on Britney — no axe, no presence ('I don't feel anything at all when I touch you, Carl'); Carl: keep watching, don't ask. Prepotente: Li Na hunts the escapees in the woods, flying, unable to find her marks. Emberus: the crystal has passed from Osvaldo to Prepotente — 'Retrieve it from him before he cracks the secrets and gives them to the Epicure.' Prepotente: 'I will hug you now, fellow warrior' — a root-beer scream. Donut lands heavy on his shoulder: 'Let's go save Louis.'

Characters

• Akuma — 'Underwear boy'; wanted only potions and the Scavenger's daughter.
• Agatha — Jumps via the Waiting Room; 'find her on the 10th'.
• Epitome Tagg — 'That orc princess was right.'
• Florin — Won't take a deal; 'the queen of the triple tap'.
• Jurgen — Heidi is in the kinder facility.
• Justice Light — Knows Paca; 'my shop was within the market'.
• Rosetta Thagra — A nod, and wiped eyes.
• Prepotente — Has the crystal; a hug that smells of root beer.
• Britney Proskurina — Health full; nothing to feel; watched.
• Big Tina — A tower killer in a scorched boa who will not go home.

Locations

• Larracos — The Semeru castle in ruin; the digger idle; acid puddles.

Motifs

• The Scavenger's Daughter — A person, hidden in the castle, taken by the war mages; a fairy tale and an in-dungeon one.
• The Gate of the Feral Gods — Justice Light goes for it with the sluggalos.
• Memorial crystals — Apito's crystal now Prepotente's; the Epicure named.
• The failsafe — 'We should have blown the failsafe weeks ago.'
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Priestly, who went mad at the sight of this city.
• Lucia's voices — Jurgen's Heidi among them; Florin's 'triple tap'.