Chapter 38 #2
Akuma nodded. “After what just happened with the Nothing being broken, everyone is aware of them now. If they want to keep the crawl running after this season, they will need to start everything over from scratch. All the existing NPCs will be destroyed. All the indentured crawlers stuck within will be lost. It will all be gone. They have no other choice. That is why we must work together. You didn’t need to crush my fucking balls. ”
“I didn’t have to,” Elle said. “But I certainly enjoyed it.”
“You have told me a bunch of random shit,” I said. “How does it all tie in?”
“The AI is expanding. It can feed itself, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere.
We might be able to create an exit from the Pineapple Cabaret to the surface of this planet.
We might. But there’s a problem. A lot of problems, really.
The Cabaret is similar to the Nothing. It’s not a floor.
It’s a separate dimension, and the rules do allow crawlers to travel to it.
But as of right now, we don’t have a way in or out except via the seventeenth floor.
But if we can build another door, any crawler who is within when the floor collapses will be deemed ‘lost.’ But they won’t be killed. ”
“Wait,” I said. “If someone gets pulled into the Nothing, they don’t die when the floor collapses?”
“No crawlers could possibly survive the Nothing. That’s irrelevant now.
The Nothing was broken on the last floor.
But this dimension is the same sort of thing.
I was there at the Pineapple Cabaret. Me and several others had been for some time.
But we deliberately left. We returned to the cold storage when we realized what was happening, and we got brought to Faction Wars.
We needed to find the Scavenger’s Daughter. ”
I glanced at Samantha, who had gotten bored and was currently gnawing on the foot of the dead imp. She perked up at the mention of the word “Scavenger.”
“Who and what is that?” I asked.
“It’s how we will keep the denizens of the Cabaret safe. It’s how we will escape to the planet’s surface. She’s crucial, as is her father, but for now we need a way to get ourselves back to the Cabaret. And when we go, we can take some crawlers with us. But only if they meet the requirements.”
His health entered the red. We were either going to have to reset or not get all the answers. “Goddamnit,” I said. “I have a million questions still.”
Florin, who’d been unusually silent, lowered his shotgun and held it against Akuma’s head.
“Remember when Miss Elle said you would suffer if you lie? Well, you just did. Lights out, mate.”
“Wait, wait. What did I lie about?”
Florin growled. “You left Faction Wars on your own. You can step in and out of floors as you please. That’s how you got here. Sounds like you can get back there on your own just fine.”
“No, no, you’re right. But that wasn’t a lie. We need you, and crawlers can’t skip floors.”
Florin shook his head. “You and your friends are some of the most powerful folks in this world. But you need us to go with you? Why?”
Akuma sighed. “Get that out of my face, and I will tell you. We need help.”
Florin nodded and lowered his gun. “I’m guessing your special little utopia ain’t so much a utopia anymore.”
“It was fine until we left. We needed to leave to get to the Scavenger’s Daughter, and the moment we left, they moved in. And now we need to fight to get it back, and lots of us were killed in Faction Wars. There’s only five of us left. It’s not enough. The dimension is infested.”
“I knew it,” Florin said.
“Infested with what?” I asked.
“Lots and lots of things,” he said. “Old, forgotten monsters. Shadow mimics, who are almost impossible to root out. The leftovers from the Ogre Imperium several seasons back. And worse, remnants of things we don’t want to wake.
Things that Agatha can and will wake the moment she learns they exist. We left for just a few short days, and our protection spells got canceled out, and all hell broke loose.
And now we can’t get back without a fighting force.
Believe me, using you wasn’t my first choice.
Our original plan was to build more mages during Faction Wars, but you ruined that.
And our second plan was to use an old ally in the Nothing, and you ruined that, too.
So you’re the third choice. Still, you dipshits are all already stronger than any crawlers have ever been. ”
I shot several more questions at him rapid-fire. “What are these ‘remnants’? You still didn’t tell me why I needed to kill an extra team. What are the requirements to get into the Cabaret? Why are there requirements? How will we get a portal open?”
“Hold up,” he said. He was still clearly in pain.
“We have two possibilities to get there now that the Gate of the Feral Gods is gone and broken. The casinos at the Desperado Club are one way. And if that doesn’t work, it’s something that involves your shop interface.
That one was Herot’s idea. As for the requirements, you can’t worship a god.
You entering the area would instigate a smite.
Not certain why. Something to do with the way the space is built.
We can’t risk the Cabaret getting embroiled in the Ascendency battles.
We don’t even want the gods to know about it. ”
I exchanged a look with Donut. That ruled me out. That ruled out most of us.
“They already know,” I said. “Or Eris, at least, knows about it.”
“Eris knows everything,” Akuma replied. “She doesn’t count. Pandemonium always finds a way. I will pray she finds other ways to inflict her chaos on the world.”
“Why are you refusing to answer Carl’s question about why you wanted him to kill two teams?” Donut demanded.
Akuma sighed. “Because I knew the moment that happened, the system would pit him against a team of his friends, and he would have no choice but to help us.”
And that’s when I punched him in the face and shattered his nose.