The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — Chapter no 69

[ 69 ]

I LANDED HEADFIRST INSIDE OF SAMANTHA’S NECK HOLE.

If I wanted my eighth-floor-only Martyr’s Path benefit to activate, I would have to be under 5% health. It would release flames over all of my outside-of-buildings footsteps. Since my fire attacks were currently enhanced with Sheol fire, and since I’d run underneath the demon, it would bathe the demon in Sheol fire. It would enhance his power. Hopefully enough.

The timing was important. It had to happen now.

At first, I felt nothing other than the lack of oxygen. It was just my head, like I was wearing Samantha as a hat that covered my face. The rest of me was restricted, too, like Samantha had been burrowing through something when I appeared. It wasn’t tight, and I could move my legs and arms, barely, but it was burning hot, despite my resistances. I felt Samantha start to push me out, but I wriggled my arms up and grabbed her and pulled down, keeping her on me. I felt the lower half of my body slip away from something, and my legs were suddenly out in open air. I started to bicycle them back and forth.

We only had twenty seconds. I watched my health. Come on, come on.

And then, my head started to burn. The intensity ramped up. Fifteen seconds. I felt my hair burn away. Ten seconds. I could hear distant screaming, and I realized I was violently whipping back and forth. Five seconds. We weren’t going to make it. My health was plummeting. I couldn’t breathe. The acid was literally melting my face off. But something was happening to Samantha too, as she slammed over and over against something.

The timer ended, and I wasn’t down to 5%.

I had failed.

I had failed. All that for nothing.

I had failed.

A page of notifications appeared, but I couldn’t read them.

I was at 7% health, and I ripped Samantha up off of me. I remained in darkness, and my health continued to dip.

A button appeared in my interface, and I mentally clicked it with all the force I had.

The Martyr’s Path has engulfed your steps.

The Scavenger’s Daughter has enhanced your fire attack.

My legs burned as a sound unlike anything I’d ever heard invaded my prison, wherever I was. It was like every wing in the world started flapping at once. Like every soul in heaven and hell sighed in unison. Like every scream was expelled at the same time.

I couldn’t breathe again, and I started to fade. All the air had been sucked from the world.

But just before I fully passed out, I gasped. The air returned as quickly as it had gone.

The slamming motion stopped, replaced by a cackling sound. Laughter.

Laughter from Amayon. It came from right above me. I slammed my Heal spell. My health stuttered up. My health had gone down to 2%, and I had a

blinking red line of debuffs.

The music stopped.

Quest Complete. The Missing Piece. Part One.

What? I didn’t understand. We’d run out of time. I’d cast my spell seconds too late. But then my eyes caught a notification persistent on the screen. A world notification. The timer had actually stopped with just two seconds left, but it wasn’t because of something I had done.

A deity has fallen. The heavens tremble with rage.

System Message. Crawler Paz Lo has slain the goddess, Ysalte. He has been marked for death by all deities except sworn enemies of the late goddess.

System Message. A Memorial Crystal for the Goddess Ysalte has been generated. It will be available to be looted on a future floor. Great riches abound to who may find it.

System Message. All worshippers of Ysalte have permanently been

inflicted with the Despondent debuff.

What the fuck? What the actual fuck?

Ysalte is no longer in the realm.

The Scavenger’s Daughter has looked away, though her eyes remain

open to the presence of Amayon. All of your vinegar-infused potions outside your inventory have been enhanced. The rest of her effects will fade with time.

My health rose, but it moved hesitantly, like I was still being drained in other ways. The heat was unbearable. I still didn’t know where I was. Paz had killed the goddess. But how? How was it possible? He was her own totem.

Just like Imani’s entire party had been killed by her own totem, I realized.

Just like Uzi Jesus had shot Florin. Just like Jola had almost eaten me. They’d warned us from the beginning that our totems weren’t always safe. But how?

She was immortal on this floor.

Everything from my waist up was still stuck in something, but at least I could breathe again. It was pitch black. My legs dangled in the air, but they were burning hot. I was too close to a fire. Samantha was still here, above me in the dark, growling and grunting and screaming. Suddenly we whipped again, slamming against something else. Nearby, the demon howled with outrage.

Donut: CARL WHERE ARE YOU? YOU BLEW UP THE WHOLE CITY! EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE! KATIA GAVE PAZ AN ARROW THING, AND HE STUCK IT INTO THE DWARF LADY’S EYE, AND THEN HE BLEW HIMSELF UP, BUT THE EXPLOSION WAS ALL CONCENTRATED ON THE GODDESS’S NECK. HER HEAD FELL OFF! WE ALL FELL DOWN SEVERAL STORIES. THEY GAVE HIM CREDIT FOR IT EVEN THOUGH HE WENT AWAY WHEN SHE DIED.

I slammed again. I tried a Heal potion, but it was still vinegar. I used a rare heal scroll. It felt like I was inside of a barrel that was rolling down a hill. I couldn’t sustain this. I tried calling out to Samantha, but she was still doing nothing but screaming in outrage.

“I will kill your mother! I swear to the heavens and hells she is dead! And I’ll make sure she stays dead this time! Release me this instant!”

Carl: I’m with Samantha! I don’t know where I am!

Donut: YOU CAN’T BE WITH SAMANTHA! THE DEMON GRABBED HER OUT OF THE AIR BUT HE’S STILL PUNCHING HIMSELF! I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD WORK ON HIM BUT IT DID. IT’S NOT GONNA TURN OFF FOR ANOTHER TWO MINUTES!

Holy shit. I’m in the demon’s hand. He’s punching himself over and over.

Elle: We won the damn quest, but my card deck is still active!

Li Na: It’s the demons. They’re swarming the building, and they’re too close. It won’t let us finish out the battle until they’re gone, too! Our decks won’t go away until we’re out of range.

Louis: Dude! I got a Celestial box for outliving a goddess who has a marked for death curse on me!

Donut: WHERE’S CARL? EVERYBODY STOP TALKING WE NEED TO FIND CARL.

Carl: I’m in the demon’s hand, and he keeps punching himself with me in it.

I was actually being cushioned by the hand itself as he continuously pounded himself, but every time he hit himself, I took a ton of damage.

Samantha remained above me, shrieking.

Elle: Holy shit. I see you! I see your legs. Don’t let him drop you!

That’s Sheol fire burning at his feet. If you fall into that, you’re dead.

Imani: The demons are still swarming. I need help. Tran and I are trapped. We’re in a pocket of debris!

I tried a Heal potion again, and this time it worked, but it was only half effective. None of my spells would get me out of here. They’d either cause him to drop me or worse, squeeze harder. Samantha would be fine. I’d pop like a bug.

“You! Demon guy!” a voice bellowed. It was Donut, screaming at the top of her lungs. She was using her headset microphone at the full setting. The autotune was turned on, too.

“Turn off your spell,” the demon bellowed. “Turn it off, or I will obliterate you!”

“I will turn it off, but you have to let my friends go. They’re stuck in your

hand!”

Smash!

Amayon groaned as he pounded himself again. This time it felt as if he’d given himself an uppercut.

I felt myself lifting in the air, and he unclenched his hand, revealing me and Samantha. I started to pull myself toward her. If I could grab back onto her pigtails…

He turned his hand to the side, and I dropped, tumbling into his left hand with a heavy smack. He lifted me to be eye to eye, even as he punched himself again in the face with his right fist. Demon spittle rained over us.

“Let them go!” Donut shrieked again.

I almost lost my footing as I stood in the demon’s scorching hand. All around, the city burned. Every place I had stepped outside of a building had burst into flames. That spread all the way to the coast and back again. I wondered if Florida and Iowa were also burning. They probably were.

Samantha shook her head like a dog and came to hover next to me.

“Carl, that was the second weirdest sex I ever had,” she grumbled. “You gotta warn a girl if you’re going to just pop in like that.” She looked me up and down. “We are going to have to do something about your hair before we announce that we’re dating now. I’ll break it to Louis, but you’ll have to put up with me straying sometimes. If I ever catch you cheating on me, there’ll be trouble.”

“I did warn you,” I said, trying to catch my breath. I took another Heal potion. My head still spun. “And we are not dating. Nor was that sex.” I had resistance to surviving inside of Sheol, but even at a few hundred feet away, the Sheol fire itself was almost unbearable.

I looked up into the sky, and despite everything, I felt an enormous sense of relief. Even though he was punching himself again and again, he’d done it.

Amayon had started casting the spell to send himself home. The massive, red cloud filled the sky, growing by the moment. I still had no idea how long it would take to cast, or if we’d buffed him up enough to cover the world. But at least he cast it.

Behind us, the FOSCA building still miraculously stood. Sort of. The area with the stairwell had completely collapsed in on itself. That was where Imani and Tran were trapped. The northern façade of the building was just gone, giving me a view of almost every level. Several other ceilings and floors had also collapsed, creating compartments and pockets everywhere.

The top few levels were nothing but steel girders. Crawlers and totems along with some of the strippers and several of Bautista’s animals swarmed over the crisscrossing metal beams of the upper levels, all moving lower as demons swarmed upward, many climbing the outside of the building like spiders. The demons were all trying to get higher, closer to the sky and to Amayon, trying to make certain they could hitch their way home. But if they had the chance to get home by taking someone with them, they weren’t squandering the opportunity. From my vantage, I could see a dozen different fights all happening at once. As I watched, Dong swung his new sock at a demon crab who plummeted away, falling into the Sheol fire below. Steve

the troll screamed as he swung his club back and forth. Li Jun and yet another kung fu totem fought side by side, swinging from metal beams as concrete rained.

I returned my attention to Amayon. The demon glared down at us. He punched himself in the face with his right hand.

“You are a child of Emberus,” he grumbled at me. He turned his attention to Samantha. “And you. That disguise won’t fool me. I know who you really are.”

“Oh, hey,” Samantha said up to him, suddenly acting casual. “So… how’s

your mother?”

He started to growl.

Donut: CARL WHAT DO WE DO? DEMONS ARE EVERYWHERE. WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE. I STILL HAVE MY DECK OUT. ALPHA CARL AND RAUL TIMED OUT AND RETURNED TO MY DECK, BUT RAUL IS WAY STRONGER NOW!

Carl: Hang on a second.

I held up a hand. “I have a message from Emberus.”

Imani: There’s too many. Oh god. They keep coming.

The demon cocked his head. I had to keep downing Heal potions to prevent myself from keeling over. I felt like I was getting cooked alive. The demon’s attention was fully on me.

“It’s more a question than a message, I guess. He wants to know if you know what happened to his son. Uh, what was his name again?”

“Orthrus’s daddy?” Samantha asked. “He’s such a good puppy. That was Geyrun. He got murdered.”

Amayon burst into laughter, but the laughter was cut short as he balled his right fist and hit himself in the face. I stumbled as the world shook. The spell was about to run out.

“That’s what he sent you to ask? To ask about his son? You tell him that I know exactly what happened to his child. I was witness to the deal being signed. If he assists in helping me kill my three brothers, I will tell him.”

Fuck me.

A new notification came, but it moved into a folder.

I took a breath. “I cast the spell that gave you new strength. I filled this world with the souls you need to go home. Tell those other demons to leave my friends alone, and I will deliver your message.”

The Why are you Hitting Yourself? spell timed out.

The demon sighed with relief. “You also helped slay Ysalte, the mother of my child, so we are even, and I owe you nothing, mortal. The act of speaking to you already delivered the message to Emberus. Soon, this entire world will be scoured. Know you have served your god well. You will be remembered as a martyr, I’m sure. Consider yourself lucky I have given you this much consideration.”

He turned his hand to the side, dumping me and Samantha toward the never-ending fire.