Chapter 85 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 85 — Zerzura

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Peeling of Larracos · Previous: Chapter 84 — And then there were two · Next: Chapter 86 — We just need to kill you · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

» 21 Minutes Until the destruction of the 9th Floor.

Summary

Twenty-one minutes. 'Goodbye, Sledgie […] You were the best bodyguard anyone could ever have.' 'Maybe I see you again. Maybe I see Bomo.' The Sledge casts Zerzura: five minutes, and Larracos with Shanty Town goes to the twelfth floor, the Court of the Ascendency, to a hill above miles of cotton fields; NPCs untouchable until the games begin, changelings as basilica guards to hold the gods; anyone the landing squashes becomes a Child of Inpewt. Who goes where: hired and dungeon-born mercenaries vanish to storage or the market; the city's NPCs, the changelings, the Semeru and all who came from the sixth go to the twelfth; strippers and sluggalos stay with the Posse; Ferdinand and Juice Box transfer, which defeats Retribution and wins the war; every outworlder leaves the dungeon. Of more than 50,000 former crawlers who came, about 28,000 remain; of 32,500 crawlers who reached the ninth, 20,221 — a record. Louis stumbles from the tent; Juice Box covers her face and walks away. Lucia sobs on the ground with Florin, Jurgen and Imani urging a deal. Corporal Pillbox, D'Nadia's gnoll, nods down from a ring. Carl could mark them all and reach 300 in every stat — 'They would be disappointed in the lack of blood I shed […] Fuck you all' — one look at Li Na and the slope is too steep; he holds the Ring of Divine Suffering to Donut's nose and she swallows it: 'I almost choked to death, Carl. That would've been quite ironic.' Ferdinand on Drick's bald head, bowler kept, offers a last-second fling; Donut: 'We have like four minutes'; 'Thanks for trying to come save me in the tower.' 'Anytime babe.' Drick to the eighteenth. Milk, contract fulfilled, going back to her guild after the season: a word etched on her own throat, and thousands of crawlers on the rings — those taking deals and those going home — give a present: the Book of Voodoo updated 'with a metric fuckton of entries […] For fucks sake. Finally', split into two volumes, the second Carl's Book of Boom: each leaving crawler painted three skills onto pages, one for Carl, one for Donut (A Banquet Fit for a Princess), one first-come on their own page; Asi Hamami's lock and key, a five-minute Lockpick 10 and 'I still have not lost my hope'; gear left in the guild. 'Hup! Hup! Hup!' The white-and-gold plains flowers and streamers rain down and make the broken city beautiful; 'Thanks for helping us murder all the bad guys!' Milk: the embargo holds; the veterans return to the Homecoming Queen. 'Burn it all to the ground.' Carl hugs his sister. Kiwi, the babies, Tina, Miss Nadine, Holger with Clint, Bonnie and Skarn, and all the children go to the twelfth; Mordecai holds Ruby: 'It's for the best, little one.' 'I made a difference?' 'You did.' Juice Box: 'Justice Light and I are taking the long way […] You'll like this one.' A dwarf finishes the castle statue: Ysalte, the Vinegar Bitch, goddess of Larracos, killed by Paz on the eighth — a giant pickaxe over her shoulder — and everything flashes. 'Both Warlords Ferdinand and Juice Box have left the realm […] Team Retribution has been defeated. The Princess Posse has won Faction Wars. Congratulations, Champions.'

Characters

• The Sledge — 'I made a difference?'
• Milk — Fulfilled; a book of almost thirty thousand pages, three from each departing crawler; 'Burn it all to the ground.'
• Princess Donut — Swallows the ring; 'Goodbye everyone!'
• Carl — Refuses the slope; 'Fuck you all'
• Ferdinand — 'Anytime babe.'
• Juice Box — The long way to the twelfth.
• Corporal Pillbox — A gnoll who survived, crying.
• Mordecai — Gives Ruby up to the twelfth.

Locations

• Larracos — Flowers and streamers on the rings, then gone.

Motifs

• The Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo — Two volumes; Carl's Book of Boom; A Banquet Fit for a Princess.
• The Ring of Divine Suffering — Eaten by a cat.
• Faction Wars — Won by forfeit; 20,221 crawlers; 'This is what happens in war.'
• Ysalte — A statue rebuilt: the goddess Paz killed, with a pickaxe.
• The Celestial Ascendency — A city and its people sent to the Court.