Chapter 92 - The Cosmic Slaughterhouse (Patreon)

Sorry this one took so long.

Almost done with Book 2 now. Honestly this was one of the hardest chapters I've written, it took me days. Normally a chapter takes me like 5 hours, but being this close to the end it just kept fighting me.

I had this song on repeat the whole time I was writing it, gonna drop it here cause I really liked it:https://open.spotify.com/track/71Umsvvy9EAxOz14UqZ6HK?si=20af36ce87e94b8aIt's called "The Silence Was Never Empty."

Anyway now that the hard one's done I'm gonna try to get another chapter out today, Wednesday. The next part is already sitting in my head ready to go so it shouldn't take as long.

Thanks for sticking with me.

The doors were open in front of her. She glanced back at her group to ensure they were prepared. As she moved forward, she saw the lobby, a waiting area, and beyond that, a blue metal door. The exit of the bioresearch facility.

Finally. All these security doors, damn. They really didn’t want anything getting out of this place… or in.

Dust covered everything, with days passing without anyone stepping inside. The space was empty, featuring only chairs, several sculptures of winged ones, and a large reception desk built wide enough to handle a crowd. Blood streaked a wall, while the front of the reception desk concealed the person from whom the blood had come.

Relax, Operator. This whole shitshow is almost over. Just ignore the fact that your heart wants to jump out of your freaking chest.

They followed in a line behind her, responding to Napoleon’s signal from atop her backpack. She approached the blue door and moved toward the control panel.

[Activating Machine Reading]

Her blue threads reached into the panel, and on the readout in her sight the locks showed dead. The door was already unlocked. The bleached monsters. Right.

The button was close to her. A swift press would open the door to the Kanryx, ending her mission. However, she hesitated, her eyes clouding as black tears flowed down her face. She repeatedly wiped them away to see clearly. When she finally reached out to press the button, her hand trembled with hesitation.

Cat. That offer of yours. Stay in the Shadow Library, live there forever. Her hand hovered, not closing the gap. Too late to say yes? Everything in her told her not to open it, but she had to.

She gently took Napoleon in her hand, and he returned the gesture with a soft squeeze. With her other hand, she found Catherine’s and placed Napoleon in her palm. It’s all in your hands now. I won’t let anyone hurt you.

Turning back to the panel, she shut her eyes, took a deep breath, held it a moment longer, and then pressed the button.

The doors opened. Not slowly, the way she’d expected. They snapped open, and in just a second, she looked up at what was hanging in the sky.

One second. She looked away. No. No, no, no. What the fuck was that? What the fuck was that?

Her eyes were shut now, tight, and it made no difference. The memory remained, hidden behind her eyelids.

My head. My fucking head. God, how can something like that even exist?

Her mind struggled to understand it. It kept trying to find a comparison, but there was nothing similar. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. There was no night or daylight; everything around the world was crimson.

She glanced back at her group, who stood silently, their senses dulled, unaware of what lay beyond the door. Intact and unharmed. To them, nothing had changed.

Can't waste time. Move.

She moved behind Catherine and gently tapped her shoulder three times to signal it was time to start their plan. The girl paused, then nodded slightly, reading the direction of the Kanryx beyond the door. She then took a careful first step forward, navigating the darkness with her goggles.

Dan and Lessa moved in behind her. They spread out as the Operator directed, with Lessa to the right and Dan to the left, keeping their distance so a blind sword swing wouldn’t catch one of their own. They held the formation and matched Catherine’s pace, following her toward the Kanryx.

She kept her eyes on the ground. She couldn’t bring herself to look up, not again, not toward the sky, even though she knew what was hanging there. There was a road beneath her feet. And on it, soldiers. Dead, all of them, every chest torn open from the inside, dried black tears crusted down their faces. 

In the distance, heavy footsteps grew louder, each step carrying a heavy weight, indicating something large but still distant. Her companions, led by Catherine, moved forward, widening the gap, while she stayed still, her eyes fixed downward. Move. Move, damn it.

Her hand shot up, and then she slapped herself hard across the face. Do something, you idiot. You need to fucking move.

She hit herself again, harder, the sting cutting through the fog in her head. They’re getting away from you. You can’t afford to break down, not now. Not while they’re walking blind.

She lifted her head slowly. Far off, a city was burning. She watched the smoke rise. Beyond it, things moved. Big things, walking, too far to know what they were, and she was glad they were far away. Her gaze went higher.

The sudden, overwhelming realization was that the sky had vanished. There was no blackness or stars, only flesh in its place, red and shiny in patches, stretching endlessly. She averted her gaze, but it was everywhere, an unbroken, infinite expanse of flesh.

"This place, It's like we're inside the stomach... Something alive?”

She then saw the eye, positioned directly in front of her at the core of everything. Embedded within a tunnel of pulsating, living tissue, it had a white sclera with black veins tracing its edges. The iris was black, accented by a gold rim. It was a planetary-scale anomaly that filled half her vision. A massive pupil, a bottomless void that devours light, stared at everything before it.

Encircling the enclosed flesh were cosmic structures, transforming everything into a cathedral of death.

"How far is that eye from this planet? Somewhere between sixty and seventy-two thousand miles away? And that fucking ridiculous size… that eye has to be thirty percent larger than Jupiter."

As her eyes adjusted to the enormous and horrifying scene above, its dark and gruesome nature became clear. The entity wasn’t just observing her world; it was overseeing a cosmic slaughterhouse.

Scattered across the dark and the red, caught in the colossal eye’s gravitational pull, were other planets. Some were already dead, gray, shattered husks stripped of atmosphere and warmth, drifting. Others were vibrant, tragic spheres of blue and green, still swirling with clouds and oceans, defenseless.

They were being harvested. Massive leviathans, creatures two or three times the size of planets, slithered through the vacuum. She stood frozen, watching as one beast unhinged its jaw wide enough to engulf an entire world, silently devouring a blue-green sphere in a single gulp. Elsewhere, colossal tendrils of flesh whipped through the void, wrapping around the crust of another distant planet. They squeezed with unimaginable force, cracking tectonic plates, peeling continents away, and tearing the world apart piece by piece until nothing remained but glowing, molten debris.

Then the sprawling crimson structures surrounding the giant eye twitched. The pupil slowly shifted its focus, locking onto the world she stood on. A cold, suffocating dread settled in her mind. This world was no spectator to the nightmare. It was the next course.

She had been standing frozen, overwhelmed by the death surrounding her. Then she turned and glanced back at her group. They had moved far ahead, now close to a ship that had crashed onto the pavement.

“I’m coming for you guys.” She prepared to sprint toward them, confident her new strength and speed would close the gap in seconds.

“So you’re the Catalyst. I’ve been looking for you,” a voice echoed behind her, gentle yet powerful. She turned quickly towards the voice.

The entity stood eight feet tall, motionless, hovering just above the ground as it watched her. A ragged, dark-red shroud hung from it, old and darkened, shifting on its own, its torn edges dripping down without ever touching the ground. A red hood covered its head, and where a face should have been, there was only shadow. She couldn’t see any eyes, but she felt its gaze on her, analyzing her.

“My name is N’vaa, priest of Vorruhn. My thanks to…” N’vaa paused, waiting for her to fill in the rest.

"The O… the Operator."

“Operator, thank you for marking this world for us. It has been a pleasant surprise to find it connected to so many others.” N’vaa gestured toward the worlds floating near this one, the ones being devoured.

“I didn’t do that. I’m not responsible for what’s happening to those planets.”

The sound of destruction echoed from afar, with bombs dropping somewhere beyond the city. In the distance, a massive creature was roaring, its tendrils destroying everything in its path as it walked.

“You can ignore them; the little ones also have the right to eat before the others arrive. For now, this area is under my control, and none of them will trouble us.” N’vaa’s voice softened. “And it’s true, you’re not responsible. The one responsible is that head you wear as an accessory…” N’vaa lowered its body toward Mordran’s head, studying it. “By the way, I love how it looks. Though we tend to be a little more extreme.” It returned to its original position, laughing.

Mordran is the one responsible? "Because he was the first to be marked?"

“Yes. It is unfortunate that he killed himself. When we arrived, we found only his headless body and a few frightened little souls locked inside crystals. They must be having a wonderful time by now.”

N’vaa looked to its right, toward one of the dead soldiers. The body began to rise, floating into its hand. “Forgive me. While searching for you, I haven’t been able to enjoy the feast.” From the shadow where its face was hidden, a dark tentacle emerged, wrapped around the body like a serpent, and squeezed until it broke apart. It then drew back into the shadow of its face and was gone, devoured.

The Operator retreated, feeling an even stronger urge to run after witnessing that.

N’vaa may have noticed her fear. “Oh, my apologies. You are the new Catalyst. We have rules. Amid all this beautiful chaos, we follow them. And we would never harm a Catalyst. We are more than grateful for the feast.”

I have to end this. I can’t afford to lose any more time here. “What do you want from me?”

“We only want to give you your reward. For all of this. For the souls. For this flesh in my hand.” N’vaa dropped what was left of the soldier to the ground, leaving only the waist and below.

"What's that reward?"

“To become a Vorruhn. Don’t you know the reward? These gifts you’ve given us make you more than deserving.”

“I’m sorry, I… I don’t want that.” Shit. Now I’ve probably offended it.

N’vaa said nothing. Even without seeing its face, something about it came across as confusion. “This is the first time a Catalyst has ever responded like that. May I ask why?”

“The… the truth is, I don’t even remember why I was marked in the first place. I don’t remember why I’d want to be a Catalyst. I don’t mean to offend you, but without knowing why I was marked, I don’t know how to answer.”

Without warning, N'vaa's hand moved forward. She didn't see it cover the distance. One moment it hung at N'vaa's side, and the next its four enormous fingers drove into her forehead, sinking through the skin, into the bone, into her. Pain tore through her skull. Her legs gave out, yet she didn’t fall.

"What the fuck… why…”

“Shh, child. I need to check.” The fingers inside her head heated up more, yet remained in place. “So it’s true.” They withdrew just as quickly as they had entered.

She dropped to her knees, gasping, then ran a hand over her forehead. Only smears of blood remained. The holes had already closed. “What’s going to happen now?”

“How curious. Something inside you fights to keep you hidden, especially from us. But… it burns your memories to keep you that way. A complication… I need a few moments. I’ll be back.”

N’vaa fell silent. Then it began to speak in a language she couldn’t understand. Its gaze turned upward, its hands raised to the middle of its body, and the words, solemn, seemed like a prayer. Each word came out as an echo that rolled through the air and pressed against everything around them, as if the whole world had to listen.

Its arms lowered, and the prayer ended. When it spoke again, its voice was louder than before, stronger, rolling out across the soon-to-be-dead world. “Finish now. We're leaving.”

“You have no idea how much I hate small, ungrateful creatures like you. If it were up to me, I'd rip your skull and your spine out through your back and keep you alive to feel it. Forever. And I've got worse than that.”

"But it is not up to me. As I said before, there are rules, even here. So I offer you two choices."