The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — Chapter no 14

[ 14 ]

“HERE’S THE PLAN,” I SAID TO PAZ, ANTON, AND SISTER INES AS THEY stared, open-mouthed up at the armored form of Bomo. “We open the door and step outside. Before the ghommids can get to us, I’ll roll the stun bomb.”

“What about Asojano?” Paz asked, still looking up at the giant cretin, who was now wearing twice as much armor as he was. “If you hit the orisha guy, it’ll mess everything up.”

I nodded. “We can see him out there.” I pointed left. “He’s already built a path for us to the temple. Sort of. All of the ghosts are pushed to the east and to the sides. The moment we exit, they’ll surge. They made this like a game quest. A gauntlet run. I’m going to toss the bomb away from him and toward the mass of ghommids, which’ll hopefully give us some breathing room. It’ll mass stun them. Then we run to the temple, get inside, and we’ll guard you while you figure out how to fix his shrine. Also, if we’re lucky, I can flag one of the ghommids. You guys should consider it, too.”

“Are those missile launchers on his shoulders?” Anton asked, walking in circles around Bomo.

“Yes,” I said. “Two six packs. Six group stun and six individuals.” I patted the round, beachball-sized bomb in my hand, which caused them all to step back. “I made them with the leftovers. The blasts will only hurt the undead, so it’s okay if they go off at short range. Just be careful of the flames coming out the back when they’re launched.”

“This armor looks heavy as shit,” Anton said after a moment, still eyeing the bomb nervously. “And more complicated than Paz’s armor. Are those

daggers? How much metal is he wearing?”

“A lot,” I said.

“With the missile launchers on his shoulder, he looks like one of those robots from Battletech,” Paz said.

“I know, right?” I asked, grinning. “He’s been playing some game called Armored Core, so he’s really into it. He’s just pissed he doesn’t have a giant

gun in addition to the missiles.”

Bomo made a sad grunt.

“The metal isn’t enchanted,” Anton continued. “It won’t protect him

against the undead.”

“I’m aware,” I said.

“I don’t like this,” Sister Ines said, looking toward the door. “If we fix the orisha’s shrine, it says he’ll be more powerful. What if he doesn’t go away?

What if he uses the power to attack us?”

I nodded. “Our manager thinks the same thing. That’s why we have a contingency.”

Thanks to Li Na’s team making a run to the Desperado Club, we gathered all the supplies we needed. It had been pricey, and we’d needed to give some of our fortune over to them just so they could pay for it. Donut wouldn’t stop grumbling about how much all of this cost.

Mordecai helped me build the first bomb. It was a modified stun grenade designed to paralyze non-corporeal monsters. I wanted to keep as many alive as possible for when the town turned back. The market on the Desperado Club’s middle floor had a booth that sold something called a Troll Smoke Mantle, which was a step up from the smoke curtains that Pustule the hobgoblin sold on the top floor. They were outrageously expensive. Thirty thousand gold for a pack of twelve, and they only had one case. I had them buy it for us. When I combined four of the smoke mantles with a stun grenade, the effect of the stun had a much wider range, and they lasted up to thirty seconds.

Then, I made smaller, lower-power versions with the rest of my supplies and attached them to seeker missiles, which I built into Bomo’s new armor. I only had enough supplies for six smoke missiles, which would have a small area effect. Then I added six anti-undead missiles that would take out just one or two ghommids at a time.

The massive suit of armor for Bomo was something I’d been toying with a few days now. I didn’t have the ability to enchant the armor, which was unfortunate. But I could make it heavy and so it would break into dozens of

pieces. I made it as big as I could without impeding his ability to move too much. The rock dude was crazy strong and could hold a lot. Paz was right.

He looked like one of those bipedal mechs.

I leaned up against the door to the outside. Thankfully, Asojano had cleared the doorway of the monsters. I readied the round stun bomb.

Donut: IF THE BOMO ARMOR PLAN WORKS, THEN MAYBE WE CAN TALK KATIA INTO COMING BACK INTO OUR PARTY.

WE CAN USE HER FOR THIS INSTEAD OF BOMO. WE JUST NEED TO COME UP WITH A COOL NAME FOR THE MOVE.

“Okay, here we go,” I said.

Combat Started.

“Dios mio,” Anton said. Sister Ines smacked him on the arm with an admonishment, but she couldn’t look away, either.

The ghommids emanated an ethereal, blue glow that they didn’t possess during the day. They lit up the fog-covered graveyard, giving everything an eerie, cerulean tinge.

If I didn’t know they were so deadly, the look would be cartoonish.

The moment we stepped outside, a choir of shrieks and keens pierced across the graveyard. They didn’t moan and groan like before. They wailed.

Loud and terrifying and high-pitched, like thousands of injured animals calling out at once.

They surged. They still moved slowly, but they were much faster at night than during the day.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Paz said as I rolled the stun grenade at the mass right behind us. The mobs were all looking directly at him.

The armored warrior suddenly had a debuff over him. Terrified. He glowed, and it went away as Sister Ines cast something, only for it to return a moment later. She repeated the healing, and the debuff returned a third time.

The man stopped, rooted in place as he looked about, wringing his armored hands.

He couldn’t move while he had the debuff.

Bam! The stun bomb went off with a muffled explosion. Billowing, red smoke filled the world behind us, swirling with the fog. All the ghommids in that area were now temporarily frozen. The ones closest to the blast were

likely dead.

We still had hundreds ahead of us to the left and right, moving to cut us off. I closed my fist and formed my gauntlet.

“Santero!” Asojano yelled. He stood at the halfway point between us and the temple at the center of the graveyard, which was about a full city block away. All I could see was the point of the building, like a dagger in the night.

Asojano stood, shrouded knee-deep in fog. “To me!”

“Run!” I called. “Bomo, keep our way clear!… And pick up Paz!”

I didn’t know why he was the only one affected by the terrified debuff, but I was grateful for it.

“He heavy!” Bomo groaned as he attempted to carry the armored man, who continued to just say, “Shit, shit, shit!” over and over again.

“Paz,” I said. “Take off your breastplate. Stick it in your inventory!

You’re too heavy for Bomo with all your armor.”

I knew his breastplate was actually light as a feather when it wasn’t equipped, and he didn’t feel the weight while he wore it, but it made him outrageously heavy to anyone else who tried to pick him up.

“Donut,” I started to say, but the breastplate blinked and disappeared as Paz unequipped it.

It revealed a surprisingly skinny, shirtless man. A giant cross tattoo was etched onto his back with a terrible rendition of Jesus in smudged ink. He still wore the leg armor, and the diameter of the waistline was wide enough that three more people could probably fit in there. The armored pants appeared to stay up magically. Bomo heaved and pulled the man up in a bear hug,

holding him against his chest.

We moved toward the temple.

I knew under all that fog, a paved street cut right through the graveyard, leading straight to the church. It had been clear of monsters when we stepped outside. Now, ghommids swelled forward, moving in on both sides as we rushed toward Asojano, who stood like a damn statue in the middle of the street, arms spread wide, like he was Moses parting the Red Sea.

The former god radiated. He burned with a sickly green light that crackled like heat around him.

I eyed the glow warily as we ran. “Don’t get too close to him!”

“What’re we going to do about Paz?” Anton shouted.

“We’ll heal him when we get inside!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! On Bomo’s shoulders, two of the six stun missiles

streaked away, exploding about thirty feet in front of us to the left and right.

A group of surging undead dropped into the fog, frozen.

“Make sure you don’t get it near Asojano!” I yelled.

Up ahead, Asojano turned and started jogging toward the temple. The ghommids didn’t come near him, but I knew if we got too close, we’d get hit with whatever disease he emanated.

A six-legged, fox-like ghommid hissed, coming up out of the fog, apparently unaffected by the stun effect. It tried to jump over me and Donut to get to Paz. I decked it with my gauntlet, and it went flying. Donut magic- missiled another one, this one round and fish-like.

The Scavenger’s Daughter has been fed. Unleash her wrath.

I’d killed enough to fill my back patch again. This time, the essence was almost all these ghommid things, giving the bar a black appearance.

“I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you, my pretties,” Donut sang from my shoulder, her voice electronic with autotune. “With my voice of an angel and my expertly sung ditties!”

You have been limbered! Your party’s dexterity is increased by 50%!

“Holy shit, that worked,” I said as we increased in speed.

“Of course it worked, Carl,” Donut said as she bounced on my shoulder, her voice still amplified and autotuned. “Now be quiet. I need to sing another verse to stack it.”

“Run little ones, run through the cities. Uhhh.” She whimpered uncertainly. “Carl loves a lady with really nice titties!”

Your party’s dexterity boost has been canceled because your bard can’t hold a tune. For everyone’s sake, she’s been muted from singing for five minutes.

“Hey!” Donut cried. She pulled the headset away.

Bomo fired two more smoke missiles ahead of us. Then, he fired two more from the other tube. These were the single-target ones. The hissing missiles arced up in the air, did a loop, and hit a pair of wailing targets moving up behind us.

The temple materialized, coming into view in the glowing darkness, emerging like some dilapidated beast. The octagonal, yellow building appeared ridiculously sinister in the dark. A single doorway stood open under an archway. The rotted door hung loosely by a single hinge, like a rotten tooth. Asojano rushed to the door, paused, and shouted for us to follow. He then disappeared inside, leaving the door swinging.

Ahead, Anton faceplanted as he hit a hidden curb. He disappeared into the fog. The road ended before the temple, but we couldn’t see the ground.

Only twenty feet away. Sister Ines bent down to pick him up, firing bolts as the ghommids surged. Bomo fired his last two smoke missiles, one right in front of us, clearing the way.

A tall ghommid with the head of a donkey appeared, coming out of the darkness, surprising me with its speed. I instinctively clicked on Daughter’s Kiss, which drained my essence bar. I clobbered the creature with my fist. I was expecting it to explode like the last time I’d used the spell. Instead, its damn head broke off with the sound of breaking pottery. The donkey head hit the ground and bounced.

But I hadn’t killed it. Both pieces—the body and the head—rumbled to life and attacked. Tentacles sprouted from the hole in the main body as the headless thing surged back at us. At the same moment, a long, striped snake body emerged from the neck of the decapitated donkey head, whipping back and forth as it wormed out of the creature. The snake body was huge, at least ten feet long, as big as a boa constrictor. The massive body had come out of nowhere. I wasted a few precious seconds, watching, open-mouthed while Anton, who was still getting to his feet, started shouting “What the fuck?

What the fuck?”

The donkey snake hissed at me and slithered forward as Donut lobbed a missile at the other half, the tentacled body. It blasted back into the fog and broke into two more pieces before they disappeared into the smoke. I focused on the donkey snake. I cast Talon Strike, prayed my foot wouldn’t get frozen, and I attempted to stomp the damn thing.

It bobbed out of the way, lightning quick, and I whiffed my punt. This one wasn’t like the others. It was fast. I almost Charlie Brown flipped onto my back. The donkey head emanated a shriek as it was hit by a bolt from Sister Ines.

It’d been about to strike. She’d likely just saved my life.

“Go!” I cried, pointing at the door as I scrambled to get away. The ground had turned from paved road to slick, wet grass. We clambered toward the entrance. Most of the creatures had been knocked out by the smoke, but a handful of them were either immune or resisted the stun effect.

“Come on!” Anton shouted.

We pushed toward the hanging door and the temple. I shoved Bomo ahead of me, yelling at him to get Paz to Sister Ines so she could cure him.

The others all entered, one by one. Donut leaped from my shoulder into the temple, yowling as she started to slide on the interior floor tiles. I turned to face the remaining monsters.

The damn donkey snake was still coming, obviously immune to the smoke. I finally noticed this one’s level was much higher than the others.

Sister Ines had almost killed it. Its health was blinking, almost gone. It continued to shriek, this time focusing on me.

The AI took on a sneering, mocking tone.

New Achievement! Crybaby!

You’ve been rendered Terrified!

Whoa. Why are you being such a little bitch? Oohhh did the widdle baby just wet itself? You can’t move your legs for fifteen seconds or until the scary monster is dead!

Reward: We do not reward people who soil themselves in public.

I had not peed myself. In fact, I didn’t actually feel scared, just irritated that this whole shitshow was harder and more dangerous than it should’ve been. I thought that was interesting, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I pulled a flag from my inventory, turned it point-first like a dagger just as the ghost donkey snake lunged. I let the beast impale itself.

The force of the strike blew me backward into the temple. I hit the tiled ground and slid, card in my hand as the debuff disappeared. I came to a stop against some rubble as Donut howled and jumped out of my way.

Entering La Iglesia de los Olvidados Combat Complete. Deck has been reset.

I groaned, looking up. I felt a strange heaviness. Moonlight shone in from a hole in the roof. Despite the broken door, the ghommids weren’t coming in.

They sounded like they were retreating.

There once was an entrance vestibule right here, but it looked as if the interior wall had crumbled away, making the whole area one giant room.

Behind me, coughing filled the chamber, which echoed slightly. It smelled of dirt and wet rot in here. The muddy tile floor was covered with moss. Donut cast Torch, and the room filled with a yellow glow, revealing a rotting, wood ceiling covered in mold.

“I have cast a spell. They can’t enter for a little while,” Asojano called. “I

am stronger in here.” I turned to look, and he was in the back of the temple, standing over a pile of rocks that glowed green with his presence. “Here is my shrine. Give me a moment to prepare, then you must come and repair it, Santero.”

I returned my attention to the red card in my hand. Donut came to look at it.

“Carl, why’d you flag that one! That one is ugly! And what kind of name is that?”

“It was tough as shit,” I said. “It’s a rare monster, too. It was different than most of the others. We got lucky.”

“It’s weird,” she said. “And that’s a really stupid name. We should be

able to rename them.”

T’Ghee Card. Rare.

Totem Card.

Skylar Spinach. Two-Thirds of an Enraged Ghommid Splitter.

“Screeech!”

Level: 66.

Origin: Cuba

Summoning duration: 60 seconds.

Constitution: 90*. *This is a splitter. It will break into two pieces upon a fatal blow, one of which will be the primary. It will continue to split until the primary is killed a total of two times. Each iteration of the primary will have

increased Constitution.

This is a non-corporeal mob.

This is an affliction-dealing mob.

Notable attacks:

Iced.

Dodge

Terrifier.

Splitter. +5 additional skills and spells.

Examine in the squad details tab of your interface for full stats and skills and spells.

Warning: You have empty slots in your squad. Collecting this card will automatically activate and place this totem into your squad. You may not remove or trade squad members until your squad is full. If you

wish to remove a card before your squad is full, you will have to tear the card.

I handed the card off to Donut. This was a type of splitter I’d read about in the cookbook. I was surprised it said it was level 66. The first iteration of this thing had been level 50, but then I remembered how these things worked.

We’d seen similar monsters during the Iron Tangle. You had to kill the brain piece three times to properly kill the whole thing. Since I’d “killed” it once, the card version was only at 2/3s strength. Despite that, this really was a lucky find. Unlike traditional splitters, this one actually got more powerful with each iteration. If we ever got out of this, we needed to get back to the sparring room to see what the final form looked like. It was four levels lower than Geraldo the monk seal, but this thing was obviously stronger.

“What kind of name is Skylar Spinach? Does that mean it’s a boy or a girl?” Donut demanded.

“I don’t know,” I said. “We can ask it next time we summon it.”

“Do you think it’s going to always be shrieking? You know how I feel about shrieking, Carl.”

“Why didn’t you use ‘kitty?’” Paz asked, sitting up. The terrified debuff was gone. The man looked dazed. He remained there on the floor, rubbing his head. Outside, the ghommids continued to wail, but we couldn’t see them, obscured by the smoke and the hanging door. They sounded like they’d

moved all the way back to the street.

“What?” Donut asked.

“Your song,” Paz said. His massive breastplate appeared in his hands, and he slipped it over his head like he was putting on a t-shirt. His head popped out the top. He’d also removed his vambraces, and he put them on now. They were designed like arm sleeves, and he was able to get them on easily. “You rhymed ‘pretties’ with ‘ditties.’ And then you used ‘cities,’ and your song got messed up because you paused. You used ‘titties.’ I’m just wondering why you didn’t go with the obvious choice. You’re a cat. Kitties.”

“I know what I am, Paz,” Donut snapped, sounding irritated. “You try to sing under pressure like that. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“No, I liked it,” he said. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. You’re a good singer.”

Donut’s attitude changed instantly. She swished her tail. “You really think so?”

“Yeah, you’re great.” The man still seemed dazed, but he was slowly

coming out of it.

She puffed her chest. “You should’ve seen me at the Butcher’s Masquerade. I was about to win the talent contest, but it got ruined.”

I looked about as they continued to chat. Sister Ines and Anton stood, facing Asojano. The cat woman glared as the orisha stood over the pile of rocks. The former god was doing a little dance around the rubble, shaking his strange wand.

The ruined shrine stood in an alcove against one of the walls in the octagon-shaped room. His was not the only broken monument here. One of the walls was used for the entrance, and there were a total of seven shrines, one against each wall in the large room. There was enough space in here for maybe fifty people to stand about comfortably.

A shining ball of light appeared in the middle of the room, its red-yellow light overwhelming Donut’s torch. It just popped into existence out of nowhere. It was about the size of a softball, and for a terrifying moment, I thought it was a massive soul crystal. It crackled like a miniature fireball frozen in place. I could feel the heat coming off it.

“The spell is forming,” Asojano called as he danced. “Nobody must touch the Sun of Reawakening until after the Santero has rebuilt my shrine!”

Donut and Paz stopped talking, and we all focused our attention on the ball. I searched my memory for any mention of such a thing. I sent a quick note to Mordecai, but he said he’d never heard of it. I took another step and tried to examine the object. The description was more than a little ominous: This magical scoop of light is pretty special. It will only last a short time in this world. If you have a stick and some hotdogs, you can probably get a quick snack in. You’ll need your strength for what comes next.

“Prepare yourself, Santero!” Asojano called. “It will be soon!”

“I still have no idea what I’m supposed to do,” Paz said.

As Asojano returned to his ceremonial prayer, humming as he danced around his pile of rocks, I approached the first shrine immediately to my left.

It was nothing but a pile of mossy rocks and some dead, desiccated plants.

Like it had once been a statue of something covered with vines that had gotten smashed.

But no, I realized as I got closer. These were actual chunks of metal, not rocks. It looked as if it had been shattered by something.

Before I could even read the info box that popped up, the metallic pieces

of the broken shrine glowed, as if they were red hot.

Both Anton and Paz let out a gasp.

“Fuck me,” Anton said a moment later.

I looked about, but I couldn’t see what had caused their reaction. From across the room, Asojano slowed his dance. The little ball of light, the “Sun of Reawakening,” lost some of its heat, and I realized it was, indeed, a gem.

Not a soul gem. It was like a flaming ruby cut into the shape of a small skull.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“We just got a quest from our god, Ogun,” Paz said. “It says we can only fix one shrine. He wants us to fix a different one than Asojano’s.”

“Oh man,” Anton said, worry evident in his voice. “Yeah. It’s that one you’re looking at. It’s a blacksmith’s anvil. If we don’t do it, we’ll get a smite. We gotta put it together, pray over it, and then we put the gem on it.”

“What happens then?” I asked.

“I told you!” Sister Ines hissed. “I told you not to worship a false god.

Now what’re we going to do?”

“We can’t let them get smited. Or smote or whatever,” I said, looking worriedly over at Asojano, who’d stopped dancing and now stood over his rubble, rhythmically shaking his wand. “We’ll have to kill him.”

“If we do that, will the ghommids get better? If not, they’ll swarm the building,” Sister Ines asked.

“I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to get better,” I said uncertainly. “The quest update said we could kill this guy.”

“Maybe Ogun will help us,” Paz said.

“Wait, is it going to summon him if we fix this thing?” I did not like that idea. At all.

“I mean, it’s his shrine,” Paz said. “He wants us to fix it. I doubt it’ll summon him. It’s a long story. Apparently he was originally one of these Orishas, but he ascended while the rest of them died or got forgotten or whatever.”

“Okay,” I said. “Donut, Bomo, the sister and I will take care of this guy while you two try to fix the shrine. Ready?”

“I’m still not sure what to do,” Paz said.

“I think it’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” Anton said. “Look, the pieces aren’t as hot anymore.” He bent down to pick one up.

And that’s when the music started.