Chaos Rising: The Realms Book Six: (An Epic LitRPG Series)

by C. M. Carney

  Where there had been one Prince, now stood two halves, each hopping in opposite directions on one leg, trailing entrails and bits of spine and oozing blood and ichor. Both arms still functioned, but neither controlled the half that now bore it, making for a confusing and erratic progress to the opposite ends of the square.

  After several minutes, Nymer and Terroch reached the edges of the square and began to fade, beginning their journey to Nowhere. As they were about to disappear, Terroch stopped and called to Nymer. “We cannot let them get away with it.”

  “Let who get away with what?” Nymer, the Prince of Forgotten Truths, asked, living up to his name.

  “The NPC and the leaving without saying goodbye.”

  “Oh right.” Nymer turned around, nearly fell over and tried to raise his arm. A scowl crossed his face as he realized he did not control the arm he bore. He gazed at his brother-self. “Do you mind?”

  “Not at all,” Terroch said and the arm on Nymer’s half rose into the air. Deep-orange energy streaked with black flowed around the hand and the mass of shredded flesh at the center of the square began to writhe together into a pulsating cocoon of skin, blood, and entrails. More and more chaos spawn detritus fed into the sack, until it burst like a massive pimple, spraying gore in a wide circle.

  In the center stood a misshapen creature that resembled a monstrous dog or bear or perhaps a badger whose skin had been flayed from its body. Veins and muscles and tendons were on full display. The beast roared, opening its five-foot-wide maw to reveal hundreds of needle-sharp teeth. Where a pair of eyes would normally be, was a ragged band of flesh. But the beast’s senses were a hundred times more acute than the chaos spawn that had birthed it, for the eyes and the mouths of said chaos spawn covered its skin. The eyes opened, shedding tears and staring in fear, while the mouths screamed in terror.

  “A very nice dire chaos abomination,” Terroch said, nodding his approval.

  “Thank you. If you would do the honors,” Nymer said and drew the fingers he controlled on Terroch’s half to Terroch’s lips.

  Terroch smiled in appreciation before placing his lips on the fingers. A high-pitched whistle rose, and the dire chaos abomination turned its sightless gaze on Terroch.

  “Kill,” Terroch said in a low voice.

  The abomination sniffed the air until it found a scent, howled towards the maelstrom of energy swirling in the sky and rushed down the nearest alley. Without another word the two halves of NymerTerroch, the Prince of Madness hopped away from each other and faded to Nowhere.

  18

  The stench of the tunnels below this Harlan’s Watch was as bad as the real version, just different somehow, ever-changing. The constant flux made it hard to concentrate. It had taken Lex’s eyes several minutes to adjust to the dim light. During that time, he walked into walls, tripped over unseen rocks and plowed into Gaarm’s back.

  “Watch it dwarf. Why ain’t you usin’ your night vision?”

  “Cuz I’m an Ordonian, just like you,” Lex countered. “Allegedly.”

  “You don’t look like no Ordonian.”

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.” An uncomfortable silence fell, hanging over them for several moments as they walked through the darkness. Eventually, Lex’s eyes adjusted enough to allow his mind to focus on things beyond walking, and suspicion took ahold of him. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Safehouse. Same one Grimslee used to hole himself up in back on Korynn. This one’s mostly the same, except for the ooze.”

  “Ooze,” Simon squealed, his mind likely flashing back to the group’s encounter with the horrid remnants of the previous Barrow King. The black, semi-sentient ooze had contained a mental echo of the dead lich lord. “Please tell me this ooze isn’t black.”

  “Nah, it’s one big gray bugger stuck in a pit in the center of the room. They say chaos sometimes messes with the natural order of things. Turns solids into ooze and gives them a bit of smarts and a hunger that won’t quit. We learned that when it ate poor Merrick.” Gaarm smacked Simon hard on the shoulder. “Don’t you worry none though. As long as you don’t walk in your sleep or piss nobody off, you should be fine and dandy.”

  Simon gave a fearful glance to Lex who shook his head.

  “Why are you helping us Gaarm?” Lex asked.

  “Cuz them chaos spawn are a nasty lot and we normies gotta stick together. Plus, I like you.”

  “You do?” Lex couldn’t imagine why. Most of his encounters with Gaarm had involved violence, death, poisonings, blunt objects connecting with skulls and accusations of improper affections for farm animals. Granted, most of that had occurred while Lex was stuck in a time loop, and technically hadn’t happened. But even his actual encounters with Gaarm had rarely gone well.

  “Sure. You’re terrible at cards, and I enjoy winning.”

  “Oh, yeah … that.” While in time loop hell, Lex had played a lot of cards with Gaarm. Lex cheated most times, but near as often he’d let the giant buffoon win. It bruised his ego to let Gaarm think he was a crappy card player, but he’d matured enough in the past several months to realize that protecting his pride was not high on the agenda.

  He cast a sideways glance at Vonn who shrugged, but the rogue’s hand hovered over his sword’s hilt, reading the subtext in Lex’s eyes. He breathed a little easier knowing Vonn had his eye on Gaarm.

  An angry bovine grunt pushed a gust of warm air over Lex reminding him that Gaarm’s minotaur friend was behind them. Not that he could forget about a near seven feet tall bull woman with horns. Like Errat, her height forced her to stoop as they walked.

  Lex smiled amiably up at her, trying to reassure her that he bore Gaarm no ill will. Her flaring nostrils suggested that she might not be getting the message. Lex turned back to Gaarm, desperate to ease the tension.

  “How’d you end up here, buddy?” The term of endearment sounded forced to Lex’s ears, but Gaarm was a bit dim and didn’t seem to notice. His friendly tone seemed to ease the minotaur’s suspicions.

  “Funny story that. One night after a few hands and a few pints at the Unicorn, I was smoking a pipe and minding my own business out back near Grimslee’s stables.” Lex and Vonn exchanged a knowing grimace. “When I see this sparkly red glow where nothing has a right to glow or sparkle. So I says, ‘Gaarm there’s plenty of rich folk and pretty barmaids about who like sparkly red things, let’s go check this one out and see if we can’t earn ourselves some coin or get ourselves a kiss.’” He made a smooching sound and sucked at his pair of teeth.

  Behind Lex, Seraphine stumbled and nearly fell, a choking sound burbling in her throat. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Feel free young fella, I don’t think the sewers will mind,” Gaarm said. “So, anyways, I walks up and bends down and stares at the sparkly red thing, only to realize it ain’t a thing at all, but some kinda glow, like the kind them mages have on their hands right before casting them spells. And I also sees that it ain’t so much red as an orangey-red with swirls of black and it's… what’s the word?”

  “Pulsing,” Lex said, hazarding a guess.

  “Yeah, pulsing like ‘whomp whomp whomp.’ So, I reaches out with my finger and touch the pulsing red-orange-black glow thingy, and it friggin’ zaps me. I gets all tingly and I can’t move and then I pass out. I wakes up sometimes later and I’m wonderin’ why the sky looks so damn odd when I sees some chaps lookin’ down on me all shadowy and such.”

  Gaarm stopped at an intersection of several tunnels and hesitated as if lost. He pointed left and then right and scratched at his beard. He looked befuddled and muttered to himself. Lex was about to ask if he was okay when the brute nodded and walked forward, continuing his tale.

  “Now these ain’t normal lookin’ folk, but I like all types, so I say ‘how ya do.’ They don’t speak so much, but they do rough me up a bit, which only seems fair. After all, they found me sleeping in the middle of the road, so it’s their right, ya know?”

  “Yeah, sure.
Sounds like an appropriate response.” Lex eyed Vonn again, who spun his finger in the universal ‘can we get on with it’ motion.

  “But they’re mostly good chaps and only hit me a few times before rifling through my stuff. They get real mad and say I ain’t got nuthin’ worth nuthin,’ so they’re gonna sell me to the slavers. Now I get pissed at that, cuz I didn't know Harlan’s Watch still had slavers, with it being outlawed and all. I mean, I woulda upped my muggings and sold a lot of folks to them if I’d known. Doesn’t seem fair, know what I’m sayin’?” Lex nodded, despite the darkness. “I put up a fight, cuz I don’t wanna be no slave. I get a few licks in, but then they says I gots a choice. Either I get to be a slave, or they’ll eat me.”

  “Eat you?” Lex exclaimed.

  “Errat does not need to eat, but I do very much enjoy eating. However, I do not think friend Gaarm would taste very good. No offense.”

  “I agree, and none taken,” Gaarm said. “Anyway, it’s around then I get clued into the fact that I might not be in Harlan’s Watch anymore, or not my Harlan’s Watch at least. But at the time it was a distant thing. Know what I’m sayin’? Like a tickle at the back of my mind.” Gaarm paused his tale waiting for Lex to comment.

  “Okay, I feel ya,” Lex said.

  “Then the most beautiful lady I’ve ever seen shows up and takes care of the slavers right licketty split. She helps me up, takes care of me and we’ve been goin’ steady ever since.”

  “Wow, quite a tale,” Lex muttered. “I’d like to meet this special lady sometime.”

  “Whadya mean?” Gaarm tossed his thumb over his shoulder. “You already have. Minny meet Rex. Rex, Minny.”

  Lex’s eyes widened as all the pieces came together.

  “But, she’s a cow?” Simon exclaimed, louder than was strictly necessary. Minny’s nostrils flared and Gaarm turned on the undead teen with heat in his eyes.

  “So? You have a problem with that, guy?”

  “Umm … no, it’s … ah … great.”

  “Good, cuz no man should judge another man for who he loves, ain't that right baby?” Minny cooed and her eyes went from raging bull to lovable heifer. Gaarm turned his focus back to Simon. “Especially a guy who has no ears.”

  “Wait, what?” Simon reached up to find that both ears were missing, the second having likely fallen from his head unnoticed as they’d made their way through the sewers. “Oh, crap.” He grabbed Lex by his robes and pulled him close with surprising strength. “You need to get me out of here, I’m falling apart.”

  “Chill kid, everything will be fine,” he said with far more confidence than he felt. Is this what being a leader is? Lying to your underlings when their world goes to shit? He turned back to Gaarm. “So new love, huh? There’s nothing like it in the world.”

  “What’s new about it. It’s been months. I even moved in with her so we could keep the magic going every day.”

  Lex’s traitor brain threatened to drag him deeper into thoughts of Gaarm’s love life when his rational mind landed on a single word Gaarm had spoken. “Months? How long have you been here?”

  “Not sure. Time works differently here. Sometimes stuff goes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes back and forth again. Look at me,” he said holding his arms wide. “I’m ten years younger physically speaking. It’s come in really handy in the stable if ya catch my drift?”

  Lex gulped and his eyes looked from Minny to Gaarm and then to Vonn.

  “What can you tell us of the chaos spawn?” Vonn asked, switching the topic.

  “Them bastards are new to town. I know the Realm of Chaos gets a bad rap, what with the mutations and the cults and the cannibalism, but most folks around here are just normal folks trying to live their lives, they’re just more …”

  “Chaotic,” Seraphine suggested.

  “Exactly. But these chaos spawn are the worst of the worst. Lunatics who serve one Prince or ‘nother for glory or power or cuz them be bored. These freaks invite mutation and possession. Bunch of asshats if you ask me, cuz most end up with horns or tentacles or extra heads they don’t need. I mean, I guess you won’t be lonely no more if you had another you can talk to, but one head always ends up killing the other and that’s no good.”

  After witnessing the Prince’s two heads arguing, Lex had to agree.

  “What do the chaos spawn want?” Lex asked.

  “They gots us digging and building and such.”

  “Digging and building what?” Lex cast a nervous glance at Vonn.

  “These big ass rings made outta this weird red metal. Same thing the Vex had me working on back in the real Harlan’s Watch.”

  “Describe these big ass rings,” Lex said, alarm surging within him.

  “They’re big, red and carved all over with these weird symbols, letters maybe. They were hard to look at cuz they kept movin’ about like worms. Gave me a headache and since I don’t read so good, I stopped looking.

  “I never saw any big ass rings back in Harlan's Watch,” Seraphine said.

  “Not surprised. It was all hush-hush, and they be buried underground. The Vex started workin’ on ‘em right after that chaos sorceress chick got killed. It was back-breaking work I tell ya, and they paid crap. But the real Vex are some scary fellas and they kept sayin’ they'd reward us beyond our wildest dreams.”

  “Is one of these big ass rings close? Can you show us?” A sinking feeling was churning its way through Lex’s guts.

  “Yeah, we’ll pass right by one.”

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Worry filled Lex as his mind skirted along the edges of suspicion. Whatever the chaos fiends were making, it could not bode well. As they walked, a low hum rose, growing louder with each step.

  “Ah, here we are,” Gaarm said. Lex turned a corner to find the sewer ahead of them had been dug up, walls knocked down and the ceiling torn out.

  Only a small portion of the ring was visible, and it curved upwards and disappeared into the darkness. It was red, flecked with hints of black and deep orange. Scrawled along the entire surface were runes in a language Lex did not recognize. The runes shifted as Lex watched and a throbbing headache began behind his eyes. He turned away and gave a worried glance to Vonn.

  “This looks like a Port Gate,” Lex said. “Only way bigger.”

  19

  Worry hummed through Lex as they continued onwards. The Princes of Chaos were building a big ass Port Gate, and if Gaarm is right, they were building its twin back in the real Harlan’s Watch.

  “They’re going to invade the Realms.” Saying it aloud made it much more real for Lex, and his body went cold.

  “That’s why I’m gonna hide down here until after them Princes vacate the premises,” Gaarm said. He ducked under an archway and knocked on a thick wooden door. An eye-level hatch snapped open and a pair of yellow eyes surrounded by a downy ochre wool glared out.

  “Whatchoo want Gaarm?” a boyish voice asked, ending with a baaing whinny.

  “Let us in Puck.”

  The eyes took in the others. “Who them?”

  “They’re friends.”

  “Liar, you ain’t got no friends.” An uncomfortable baaah accompanied the jab.

  “Now look here…” Gaarm began. Minny pushed him aside and stooped down, her nose close enough to the hatch for her hot breath to bring tears to Puck’s eyes. Even through squinted eyes, Puck’s fear was obvious, and the hatch slammed shut. A moment later the sound of heavy bars being slid from the doorframe rose and the door opened.

  Gaarm pushed himself past the guard, a short, half-man half-goat covered in rust-colored fur. Lex’s eyes widened. First a minotaur woman, now a satyr. What’s next, a mermaid? The others entered the room, which apart from the hole in the center of the floor, was familiar to them all. Gaarm told them to make themselves at home and sat at a table a few feet from the pit. The gang all sat on various couches, chairs, and tables, giving the hole a wide berth.

 
Lex still had questions and sat opposite Gaarm. His position was far too close to the pit and he could not help but glance down. At the bottom was the gray ooze. It resembled a seething pool of gray jello and it extended and stretched a pseudopod upwards on seeing Lex.

  Gaarm took a torch from a nearby sconce and stabbed it down towards the ooze. “Get back you slimy bastard.” It screeched and retreated. Gaarm grinned at Lex, his two yellowed teeth resembling a pair of lonely gravestones in an otherwise vacant graveyard. “It don’t like fire.”

  "Good to know." A dozen thoughts swirled through Lex's mind. "What else can you tell us about the Princes."

  “Not much. The one you chatted up was the first we’ve seen, sorta.” When Lex eyed him curiously, Gaarm continued. “That wasn’t really the prince, just his avatar. Up till now, we've only seen their minions, the chaos spawn. And the spawn want different things at different times.”

  “What do you mean?” Lex wasn’t sure he wanted to know but knew he needed all the information he could get.

  “Once, one cornered me and thrust its hand in my face. The palm had this creepy mouth with sharp teeth and three tongues that kept getting in each other’s way. The hand mouth kept asking me something, but all the tongues made it hard to understand. I kept sayin’ ‘pardon’ and thought I was gonna get eaten or possessed, but nope this crazy bastard just wanted a compliment.”

  “A compliment?” Simon asked, leaning forward. “Like, ‘you look nice today’?”

  “Wish I’d thought of that,” Gaarm said. “But I panicked and said its shoes looked comfortable. I thought I was dead, but then the palm mouth smiled, said thanks and moved on. Crazy thing is the bastard didn’t even have shoes cuz it had no feet, just some big slug blob where its legs shoulda been.”

  Gaarm's tale made Lex's head hurt. The fact that none of the Princes had appeared until now pointed to one truth. They're close to completing the gate. But why copy Lex? It sure seemed they'd targeted him specifically. "Any idea what that two-headed Prince was arguing about? He, they, it, kept talking about some question."