Chapter 253: Hookers, Blow, and a Pinkie Toe
byKilling people was never pleasant. They squirmed and struggled and did everything they possibly could to survive. Void was no different.
After Will took the ring, Vincent shifted to full evasion.
Or…he tried. A burst of flame erupted from Void, and he shot away from Will and the Floor below, not even trying to reach the ground anymore, just trying to get away.
Will pinned him down with the Phantom Snakes and yanked the other ring off.
The flames he was using to navigate sputtered out as he lost his set bonus.
The rest of Void’s kit vanished in a matter of seconds.
59 Charges remaining
‘Not yet, take money! Guide to treasure-’ Void desperately signed before Will cut off his limbs.
In a matter of seconds, Void was reduced to a floating cluster of flesh-chunks.
Bastard. Why couldn’t you have just been hardcore to the very end? Obviously it was a ploy to make Will reconsider killing him, but that wasn’t gonna happen. All it did was make him feel like a jerk.
Would he have spared me if I surrendered? Probably. in this specific situation, Will had been flanked by Lords, and Void had been focused on escape, probably looking for a peace offering as a newly established Lord. Sparing Will would’ve been a good step towards being accepted by the other Lords.
In any other circumstance, Will seriously doubted Void would’ve given killing him a second thought.
Will floated there and thought for a moment, studying the lazily spinning pieces of his opponent.
I’d like to get some fire out here and reduce this corpse to ash, but I don’t think fire would burn up here. Mason isn’t available either.
He might not be dead, but I don’t really have anything on me that can annihilate the corpse. I guess this is where a simple self-made fire Ability might come in handy.
A tap on Will’s shoulder startled him into nearly bisecting Ghoul. The mummified Lord had matched Will’s spin and appeared to be stationary while the world below twirled.
‘Hunt over?’ Ghoul signed.
Will nodded.
Ghoul held out a hand and a massive circle of miasma unleashed a beam of energy that reduced the floating chunks of Void to dust.
‘Thanks.’ Will signed.
Ghoul gave him a salute before Will turned and headed back down to the Floor below.
Once he was completely sure Will gone, Ghoul turned his attention back to the cloud of dust.
A huge tangle of miasmatic structures flooded out of him, wrapping around the area with tendrils anchoring into spacetime itself. Charge began to pulse through it, slowly at first, as if tentatively checking the strength of the spell, before the pulsing began to increase in speed, forcibly wrenching the shred of spacetime in a direction that had no name.
The dust of Void returned to pieces, then the pieces stuck themselves back together.
Ghoul released his hold on reality and Void flinched, seemingly confused about Will’s sudden disappearance before his gaze landed on Ghoul.
‘Any conflict you had with him has been resolved.’ Ghoul signed. ‘You are uniquely suited for my Stronghold. Become mine Vassal or refuse, and I will return you to dust.’
Void rolled his eyes. ‘I was this close to being free.’ He signed.
‘Alas, you’re too useful to be free. I’ll pay you generously. Weekends off and two weeks of paid vacation a year.’
‘That’s not even enough time to get to the 5th Floor and back.’
‘…I’ll let you save up your weekends. And if you clear a livable space on the 8th Floor, we’ll get some hookers and blow.’
‘…my Lord.’ Void signed, bowing. It was a little awkward in space, but he made it work.
Down on the surface, Will landed beside Loth.
“He dead?” She asked.
Void’s tag blinked on his map for a brief instant before it disappeared again.
“I thought so?” Will said, checking with Phantom Eye.
Void was alive again, and he and Ghoul were talking about…hookers and blow?
“…No. Ghoul is recruiting Void in ‘secret’.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
“Well, it’s not my problem.” Will said with a shrug. “I said was gonna kill him and I did. Not much I can do about what happens after. He doesn’t have the set anymore, either.”
“That’s very forward thinking of you,” Loth said.
Will was a little upset that Ghoul tried to keep it a secret from him, but perhaps it was simply to maintain plausible deniability between Lords. Will didn’t think Ghoul was doing it to hurt Will, so he let it lie for now.
Hookers and blow? Will scoffed and shook his head, turning his attention to other matters.
“Now that the wedding’s over, let’s talk about that dragon you need a Sacrifice from.” Will said.
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“Spoken as if you won’t be flooded with cleanup work. Plus your Abby is dead.” Loth said, pointing a single black talon at his waist.
“Ah, shit,” Will groaned. He was going to have to spend two weeks acclimating after skipping two Floors, and Amanda Wyrd hated him.
He couldn’t exactly lurk around the Floor with his presence unexplained. He was a Lord, and doing something like that was overtly hostile. He would have to go announce that he was here and acclimating at the very least.
He hadn’t noticed during the fight with Void, but Abby had long since died and stopped moderating his Miasma. Will peeled the enormous dead insect off his body with a shudder.
Mark Wyrd was on the upper Floors, still fighting his way back down, the other side of the net they had created to catch the norworm, but Amanda Wyrd had gone straight back to her home on the 7th Floor.
It was just as awkward as Will had expected, but Brianna was a lifesaver. After he announced to the Stronghold that he was acclimating on the Floor, Brianna simply kept Will and Amanda from running into each other for the two weeks he was forced to stay on the Floor.
And nobody got real hurt.
Once Will was back in his own Stronghold, Loth’s prediction was proven accurate as he was forced to deal with the fallout of the Norworm. Everyone…EVERYONE had to get tested multiple times, and the results recorded and logged with the Exchange Hall.
A portion of Zodiac’s stronghold chose to stay on the 10th Floor for the ‘easy’ work of killing desert monsters and mining, which caused a population boom in the Burned Stronghold.
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