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Still going to be rather busy with editing this week, so once again there will be three chapters (counting this as the first) this week.

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Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Sixty-Four

“That wasn’t so bad, right?” Chaos asked, shedding the lab coat which was inexplicably covered in so much blood and meaty chunks.

Adam wasn’t sure what exactly had happened, but he felt lighter, somehow. It also hadn’t been painful at all, and he was fairly sure the Absolute was just messing with him to entertain himself.

Chaos lifted up the lab coat and sniffed it, his face cringing at the smell. Then he threw it in a nearby trash can, which immediately lit on fire.

Adam realised belatedly that all the blood and chunks must’ve been the remnants of the Flayed Lady’s gift, which she had somehow gotten stuck to the shard in his soul.

He sat up. “Does this mean that it’s over? Has the Flayed Lady been expelled from this universe?”

Chaos folded his blue arms. “No.”

“Why not? I thought my corrupted shard was the reason she was somehow able to take over all the other players.”

“Let me put it this way, I removed the malware from your hard drive, but the entire network is still infected. Even a simple reboot won’t fix it.”

“By reboot, you mean—?”

“A new loop.”

Adam sighed. “Which means that I need to abandon this universe…”

“She’s a real piece of work, sending you to a universe like this, only to use it against you.”

“Can you help me find a different one where no one has been sacrificed to Nwetrou?”

“Maybe.”

Adam frowned.

“What about my magic problem? The Tome Keeper told me that using magic was dangerous and could damage my memories.”

“I can’t do anything about that. It’s a soul scar, and I’m no expert in souls, that domain is the First Light’s. But don’t go asking it for help, because it might just completely heal your soul, which is the equivalent of smoothing out the folds in your brain.”

“Thanks for the mental image,” Adam replied. “But what should I do then? The Tome Keeper said that maybe the All-Mother could help me, but do you think that’s true?”

“Possibly. She might have some special fruit that can fix you right up. It’s worth a try at any rate.”

Adam sighed. “I really felt like I was starting to get a good handle on magic too…”

“Without being too victim-blamey, this is kind of your own fault for worshipping the Flayed Lady.”

“I feel like it was kind of worth it,” Adam replied. “I gained the ability to stay within a universe if I so wish.”

“I could’ve done that for you for free,” Chaos replied. “Fair warning though, you shouldn’t trust the Boy too much. He did get you killed so you would help him infiltrate the Flayed Lady’s domain after all.”

Adam paused. “He told me he didn’t know that would happen.”

Chaos laughed. “And you believed him? His whole schtick is that he knows everything, after all.”

“When you put it like that…” Adam replied, the realisation settling in.

“This is turning into a real downer, so let me show you why this universe didn’t have a fish problem, that’ll be a lot more fun for the both of us,” Chaos said.

Suddenly Adam was sitting on the grass near the edge behind the lighthouse. Fal stood nearby, frozen in time as she looked out upon the clouds.

Chaos glanced over at his daughter. Then he pulled Adam to his feet.

Before he could react, the Absolute held out his palm towards Adam’s face and blew air over it, shedding thousands of tiny glimmering cerulean blue scales. They washed over Adam and suddenly he started to float.

“Woah, what’s happening to me?”

“Balloonification,” the Absolute replied.

He pulled Adam with him to the edge, while Adam’s body floated upwards, indeed like a helium-filled balloon.

“You know, I have my own wings that allow me to fly,” Adam remarked from his undignified position in the air.

“This is more fun,” Chaos replied and jumped off the edge.

Using Adam to slow his descent, Chaos Marry Poppins’ed himself down along the island’s cliffside, falling much farther than Adam had expected, before finally landing on the ledge in front of Sköll’s cave.

Chaos pulled Adam down to stand on the platform jutting out, and the balloon effect immediately evaporated.

Adam looked up, but even from the ledge, he couldn’t see anything other than the island’s cliff overhead. In the past, it had been a straight shot from the edge of the island and down to Sköll’s cave.

“Do you see what I mean?” Chaos asked.

“The cave is in a different place,” Adam realised.

“Bingo!”

“But this won’t stop people from exploring and eventually finding it,” Adam said.

“You would be surprised. In universes where the cave isn’t visible from the edge above, the number of players sacrificed to Nwetrou is insignificantly small.”

“So, it’s different between universes?”

“The Watcher insisted on allowing Nwetrou’s worshippers to sacrifice as many players as possible, even though it is directly opposed to the Watcher’s own goal of keeping the Trials running eternally.”

Adam frowned. “It told me that the suffering fuels it.”

“The Sovereign Oculus that the Watcher has installed as its overseer for the Trials of Defiance is indeed quite the sadistic asshole.”

“Since you helped design the Trials, then you’re to blame as well,” Adam pointed out, while wondering what the hell a Sovereign Oculus was.

Chaos threw up his hands in exasperation. “Is it a crime to wanna have some fun?”

“Are you responsible for the cave being in different places?” Adam asked.

“That I am. Randomness is my forte, didn’t you know? And besides, that fat whale doesn’t deserve what he was given. He hands out goddamn trophies for sacrificing my beautiful children.”

“You mean the wall inside the cave?” Adam asked, recalling how Nova had tried to get him to use the Abyssal Tooth on Thea, just to show him a secret inside Sköll’s hideout.

“I’m gonna pound that glorified calamaro into a fine spreadable paste,” Chaos grumbled. “But alas, part of me is responsible for the rules that prevents Absolutes from exerting their will on the Trials. Of course, I know all the loopholes, but I need to lead by example. Or something… Anyway, go punch the squid to death for me, will ya?”

“What do I get out of it?” Adam asked.

“Extortion? Wow, Adam, I thought you were supposed to be a good guy.”

He shook his head in exasperation. What have I gotten myself into?

“Alright, fine, I’ll show you what the sacrifices of my children would’ve rewarded you.”

“That’s more like it,” Adam replied and walked into the cave.

A wet pop came from Chaos and he looked back to see the blue moth humanoid had turned into a cube that was indistinguishable from Shitbox.

[I’m going in undercover, all sneaky-beaky like,] Chaos said, even imitating the cube’s voice.

Adam couldn’t help but laugh.

At least it’s a welcome change from the Flayed Lady’s worship.

He walked down into the Deep Place while Chaos floated alongside him. Unlike everywhere else on the island right now, this place wasn’t frozen in time, and Adam saw the glowing rings on the back wall of the cavern as he entered, knowing them to belong to the massive octopus.

Sköll peeled its large arms off of the wall and raised itself up to reach an imposing stature in the middle of the chamber. “I was wondering when you would return. I sense you have brought many Soul Drops,” the giant octopus’s voice boomed, shaking the cavern floor under Adam’s feet.

He remembers me?

“It is too late for you to worship my Lord, given your subservience to another, but you may still bring your Soul Drops to me for an exchange.”

“I’m not looking for an exchange right now,” Adam replied.

[That’s right, Squidward! Hands in the air, this is a fucking stick-up!] Chaos blared.

The giant octopus looked down at Adam’s cube.

“Are you…?”

Before he could finish his question, Adam flung himself forward with a flap of his moth wings, before slamming his empowered right hand into Sköll’s body.

The octopus was surprisingly flexible and absorbed the initial impact, but the damage was clearly too overwhelming for it to handle, and it was launched up into the cavern ceiling, splattering blue blood everywhere.

As Sköll’s body fell back down, it released a loud squelch and dropped a relic to the ground.

< < Unique Relic Obtained > >

< Inert Abyssal Tooth (Epic) — This artefact of the Dweller in the Deep is devoid of its original power >

With a woosh of fire, Adam’s brooch turned the giant octopus into ash, leaving behind a strange soul seed that looked almost like a boiled chicken egg without the shell.

[Fal gave you that,] Chaos remarked.

“It’s been useful for getting soul drops without needing to sacrifice people to Nwetrou, although, how am I supposed to exchange them if Sköll remembers my past actions?”

[He is still bound to the rules that require him to be a vendor,] Chaos answered. [Also, it is not that he remembers you. He doesn’t possess such power. Nwetrou is probably just informing him about you.]

Chaos dropped his cube body to the ground, where it sprouted two baby legs and arms, before waddling towards the inert tooth. As he lifted the tooth into the air, the whole thing vibrated and turned silver, with its dull reflections cast in a crimson glare.

He waddled over to Adam, presenting it. “Here you go,” he said, his voice turned back to normal.

< < Object > >

< Abyssal Malware Spike — Apply directly to the forehead >

“What did you do to it?”

“Something fun,” Chaos replied with a mischievous tone to his voice. “When you reach Miredeep, seek out the leviathan boss and ram this bad boy into its cranium once it’s defeated. That’ll erase all of Nwetrou’s influence in the universe and return the sacrificed players in the following loop.”

Adam frowned. “I should’ve stayed in Beck’s universe.”

“You would’ve doomed it,” Chaos reminded him. “Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend using it in this universe, since it would be a waste, so pop it in your relic saving chest and use it when you find a place you want to settle into.”

“It can be saved? But it’s not a relic.”

“It’s technically a relic, and since it has no rarity, it can be transferred with the relic saving chest,” Chaos replied. “Neat trick, right?”

“I should find one of the universes where the Deep Place isn’t visible from above,” Adam muttered to himself, the possibilities of Chaos’ gift settling in.

Not to mention, one of the universes where Emelia, Beck, Kat, Willow, and everyone else is like I remember them.

The images of his friends and family’s worst moments in previous loops flashed through his mind, such as Lenard being deep in the drink because of losing his wife and daughter, and Willow being distraught because of her stalker.

I need to find a universe where I can befriend them again, he realised. Not to mention, it has to be a universe without a crazy time-looper.

Chaos nodded, which was weird, since he didn’t have a head on his strange body. He seemed to realise this himself, because he suddenly jumped up, his features turned into those of a frog humanoid, though once again wearing a suit with a red glitchy tie.

“Ribbit.” Chaos cleared his throat. “I mean, yes.”

Adam mentally prompted the system to send the malware spike to his relic chest and it vanished from his hands.

“Alright, show me what these weird doors are for,” he said to Chaos.

The Absolute walked past the pile of dust that had been Sköll’s body, and lifted a webbed hand covered in glistening rubbery skin. Suddenly he held a glitchy red orb in-between his fingers and he pressed it into the recess in the backwall, where a groove formed the outline of a door.

According to Alexander Nova, the round holes in the stone doors could only be opened with an object obtained from sacrificing the right island denizen, but no matter what was behind the doors, Adam refused to go through with something so obviously amoral, because it was clear the denizens were real.

Chaos pressed his glitchy orb into the recess of the first door. There was a total of three, and Nova had said they required sacrificing Thea, Lucca, and one of the moths to open.

As the orb slid into the first one, the stone door simply turned to dust, revealing a small pedestal with a necklace featuring a hammer pendant.

“You can grab it if you want,” Chaos said.

“Really?” Adam asked, surprised.

“This universe is doomed anyway, so might as well go all out with the cheating,” he replied, shrugging his strange frog shoulders, while his red tie tried to coil itself around his neck to strangle him.

< < Unique Relic Obtained > >

< Hammer Pendant (Epic) — Activate to summon a molten hammer of lava that breaks any Relic of Epic rarity or lower on impact, turning it into scrap. 24-hour cooldown >

That’s a pretty interesting effect, but sacrificing Thea for this and losing access to weapon upgrading is truly a bad trade.

“You keep saying this universe is doomed,” Adam remarked. “Is it really? Can’t you do something about the Flayed Lady?”

“I could, but it wouldn’t be worth the ribbit trouble.”

“So, you’d rather abandon the universe?”

“On the contrary,” he replied seriously, blinking his right eye and then his left. “I’ve got a plan that you’ve will help me carry out. We’re going to trap the Flayed Lady in this universe, so she won’t be able to do what she did ever again.”

“Will that stop her from appearing in other universes altogether?”

“No, but it should teach her an important lesson. The spike I gave you will have the opposite effect on Nwetrou in whatever universe you use it in, but while the Flayed Lady craves omniscient control, Nwetrou seeks endless feasting. Denying him from feasting on a universe will be a fitting punishment that he is sure to feel deeply, glutton that he is.”

“But ultimately, they won’t be stopped,” Adam surmised.

“You’re talking about Absolutes, Adam. It’s like asking why gravity won’t go away or why water boils or sapience exists. They’re confined to simple aspects of their greater beings within the Trials of Defiance, so it’s easy to assume they are simple Gods, but take the Tome Keeper for example. He is known for many things, like fleshcrafting and bringing inanimate things to life, not to mention summoning, rituals, languages, and so on. In the Trials, he is personified by his Tome Keeper title, even though he carries names like the Seeker, Father of Monstrosity, Tome Warden, the Ritualist, and many more. The same goes for all the other Absolutes, and I’m sure you may have realised this, but there are far more of them than were invited to participate in this game.”

Adam sighed.

“I understand what the point of all of this is for the Watcher, but why are you doing this? You don’t seem that different from a human, if we ignore the shapeshifting and massive goose serpent you arrived with.”

“In the Trials, I am titled the Chaotic Convergence, but I am also called the Gamemaker by those who know me well. The Trials of Defiance provides me with the joy of watching my creation flourish, and by seeing players battle their way through its challenges, learning to grow stronger and smarter along the way.”

“Parvillo told me that no universe has managed to beat the Trials,” Adam replied. “That doesn’t seem like a very satisfying game.”

“Unfortunately, I had no hand in the final stage, and it bears all the hallmarks of the Watcher’s idea of game-making. It’s crude and unforgiving, but provides the endless fresh suffering the Sovereign Oculus so craves… But that’s why I made you!”

“Made?”

“Adam, I’m your father,” he said, his voice suddenly muffled and deep.

“Hilarious,” Adam said with a deadpan expression.

“Okay, I didn’t actually make you. I did pick you though! Sort of… It’s like reaching into a hat full of names.”

Adam sighed. “So much for believing it was divine providence.”

“Randomness is beautiful,” the Absolute remarked proudly. “Could it have picked a more fitting champion? Of course. But to question it is to blaspheme.”

Adam’s shoulders slumped. “I kind of wish you hadn’t told me that… That’s honestly such a bummer to find out.”

“Like when your parents told you that you were a mistake on their holiday trip to the Maldives?”

“They never said that,” Adam replied.

“In this universe they did!”

“And now you’re gonna tell me that it’s a defining moment for this universe’s version of me and why I became a time-looper here?”

Chaos looked away, beads of perspiration forming on his rubbery forehead. “Uh… No?”

“Goddamn it,” Adam muttered.

“Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

“Let’s see what’s behind the other doors,” Adam said, wanting to get away from this deeply uncomfortable topic.

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