by J. J. Pavlov
Rolan slashes his way through the few Graebern that still bar the way onto the bridge, and the party begins to run across it. I look back and see that our pursuers are practically already gnawing at Gram's heels.
But what chills me to the bone is their queen, who has almost caught up. It's much faster than any of the others due to its size, and it doesn't look like it will stop because of the relatively small bridge. If that thing barrels through us, we'll fall into the seemingly endless abyss below.
The bard turns around at the last third of the bridge and shoots a crossbow bolt at the giant Graeber queen. It sticks her right in the shoulder, but she doesn't even flinch and continues on like it was just a mosquito bite. Her hide is too thick for something tiny like that to cause any significant harm.
We keep running, and I see Rolan, Luna, and Daica making it across to the other side safely. I let go of Kamii's hand, waving for her to go ahead first, before turning to see how Gram is doing. He's the slowest of our party because of the amount of luggage he's carrying, as well as the giant shield on his back.
"Hasta de Lumin!" I'm beginning to feel dumb for having to chant this every time, like a character calling her attacks. Releasing the spirit spear straight at the mole rat queen's forehead, I hope that it will pierce through her just like it did against all the smaller ones.
But she's unexpectedly nimble for her size and dodges the spear by lowering her body to the ground, barely slowing down. Still, it buys Gram enough time to catch up with us, and I continue to run alongside him.
We pass by the bard, who isn't moving from his spot, and I spin my head around in surprise. What is he trying to pull?
Everybody crosses the bridge, and we look back to see that he has exchanged his crossbow for his lute, playing a note that echoes into the chasm below. The returning sound creates the illusion of a ghostly orchestra rising from the depths to join him.
At the dissonant music, the giant Graeber queen, who has made it to the center of the bridge, stops once again and stares at him from a distance in careful curiosity.
Don't tell me he's actually really powerful and is going to use some sound-based magic to stop her and the entire army behind her from crossing the bridge? There was never any sign of that!
"Go, my friends! I shall stop them here." He calls out to us while strumming his lute more and more fervently, a fearless expression on his face. The queen looks around and sniffs the air audibly, before realizing that it must be a bluff. With a mighty roar that drowns out the bard's music, she charges forward once again.
Wait, is he really just bluffing?
"What did you mix there?" I turn to Daica and ask her about the concoction she made.
"A-an explosive, but-" She begins to answer, and I take the flask out of her hand without listening to the rest. Putting as much strength as I can into my arm, I throw the glass bottle across the bridge. It lands between the Graeber queen and the bard, and shatters, spilling its contents.
But nothing more happens.
Huh?
The queen comes to a skidding halt and sniffs the concoction, before shying back half a step. Then it tries to smell again, finding that it's nothing dangerous after all, and continues to charge forward.
"Why didn't it go off?!" I spin around to the big dark elf and point at the broken flask.
"I-it wasn't finished!" She looks close to tears.
What the f-
"-iend from the shadows! Return to the abyss! You!" Raising his voice and letting it echo throughout the cave, the bard spreads his arms heroically. "Shall not-"
Oh no, you don't! I won't let you look cool here on your own!
"Hasta de Lumin!" I chant and put all my intent behind it. My aim isn't the massive creature coming down on the bard, but the bridge itself. Maybe I can break the stone and make the Graeber queen fall into the depths.
Shooting the spear into the ground just in front of the bard, the light explodes on the rock. He stumbles backward from the impact and stares down at the place where the spirit spear hit. There's a small crater, but the bridge is still fully intact.
Damn!
The massive creature turns to look at me, then at the small sizzling crater, before snorting in what I can only interpret as mockery.
What?! That creature's making fun of me! It didn't work the way I hoped it would this time, but-
She takes a step forward and cracks form in the stone where the spirit spear left its mark. Then she takes another step while swinging her giant claws down at the bard. He looks up fearlessly, ready to face his death.
That's when the bridge collapses under her feet. Apparently, my shot was enough to destabilize it to the point where two more steps from her weight caused the stone to break. Squealing in a nerve-grating pitch and grasping the air impotently, the Graeber queen falls into the endless abyss below.
"Quick, get off the bridge!" I call out to the bard, and he reacts immediately. Turning on his heel, he runs towards us while the stone under him begins to crumble away with every further step he takes. He just barely makes it to our side, jumping the last stretch. Gram takes hold of his arm and pulls him in.
Looking across the chasm, we see in the light of the still-burning flames from Luna's magic that the other side is teeming with Graebern. They scream in unbridled rage because they lost their queen, and I can see some of them beginning to climb down in hopes of saving her.
Then an arrow whirrs past my ear.
"Run!" Rolan sees that more and more of them are readying their bows, and quickly pulls Luna and Kamii along. Gram shields Daica, the bard and me, as we quickly make for the giant gate at the end of the platform.
With this, we leave the great halls of the dwarves, the City of Rathgolim, behind us.
It seems that there are no Graebern on this side of the bridge. Even after more than what feels like three hours of intermittent running, we haven't encountered any more enemies. The leader calls for a break so that everybody can catch their breaths, although I'm sure we need more than just that. Everybody except for me is completely exhausted. Even Kamii, who has been keeping up even better than the men, is sitting down and breathing hard.
I have to act like I'm the same, but in my previous life, this would have been a breeze; I ran full marathons at top speeds, so the light jogging that we did - even while carrying all this luggage - wouldn't leave me panting just yet.
"How long is it until we make it out of here?" I ask the bard, who's drinking from his water canteen while standing on shaky legs.
"We still have half a day and one night before us." He replies with an uneasy expression. "We have to stay on the move."
Thus, we set off again, but at least we go at the more reasonable pace of a brisk walk. The unspoken agreement is that we would only walk at this speed as long as we don't hear any pursuers.
At one point, the bard tells us that it's already deep at night and that we should find a place to sleep. While we haven't been running anymore and pacing ourselves rather well, fatigue is mounting. Everybody's still soldiering on, setting one foot before the other even at the edge of total exhaustion. Even I can feel tiredness crawl into my mind, as my mental state is deteriorating under the stress of the unknown darkness all around us.
A high-pitched sound from behind immediately sets us straight again, and we make a run for it, stretching the limits of our stamina to the utmost to get out of this place just a moment earlier. Between sweating like a pig or bleeding like one, anybody would choose the former.
"So... it was... just the wind..." Rolan falls to his knees as the sound is coming from all around us, accompanied by a fresh breeze.
"It fooled... even me..." The bard comments, out of breath. His hearing is exceptional, but even he has been on edge at the time, so he couldn't tell the difference between a Graeber's squeal and the wind blowing through cracks in the tunnel.
I think he doesn't look like he had a brush with death earlier, as he wears his usual smile. I feel like hitting him over
the head, but Rolan already does it for me.
"What were you thinking back there?" Now that his perception of danger has taken a backseat, he's reminded of what transpired on that bridge.
"Well, the situation looked quite dire. I was not aware that Lady Marcott had such a precise grasp of the bridge's weakness." He sounds apologetic and lowers his head, but there's still a relieved smile on his face. "She really saved me... saved us there."
I sigh at his nonchalance. Others were quite worried about him, but I guess it's part of his nature and what makes him so special. They can't stay mad at him, which in turn lifts the morale of the party.
"Yeah, you're really a great addition to our group, Chloe." Rolan gives me a smile that would have charmed me if I was any other girl. I just reply with my own.
My priorities, Senka, Daica, and Kamii, are all safe, so I'm content. I also learned something incredible about Kamii's curse, and now I know that she has quite the frightening potential in that crab arm of hers. Luckily, the humans haven't noticed it, since nobody brings it up. I'll make sure to keep it a secret from them for the time being.
All in all, that was quite the adventure. I finally understand the thrill people doing mountain-climbing, going deep-diving in the ocean, and participating in all kinds of extreme sports must feel. Everything seems much more real when there's danger to one's life involved.
"This was really an experience. I don't think anyone has ever survived such a close shave before. You'll have a great story to tell." Gram comments with a wide grin and slaps the bard's shoulder weakly. Even the big man, a paragon of strength, has reached his limits.
Indeed, the bard has the perfect job to spin this into a grand tale for the ages. I just hope he makes sure to mention my grand role in it.
We choose to continue through the night so that we can put this mountain behind us. While there are no signs of the Graebern following us this far, we can't rest until we're out in the open. According to the bard, they won't leave the safety of the earth.
It's the light of day again.
There's a titanic gate before us, opened just a crack. Due to its sheer size, that small opening is enough for a horse-drawn carriage to pass through easily. Beyond it, we can finally see the natural light of the sun. The wind blows in the cool and fresh air, which seems to wipe away the memory of the sweltering staleness that was the underground, and the fetid stench of the Graebern that has been clinging onto us since our encounter with them.
"The Gate of Datharod." The bard announces, with far less enthusiasm than he showed for most of our journey. Nobody had a wink of sleep for a long time now, and even I'm feeling exhausted at this point. "Just beyond here is The Maw."
I look up and try to gauge just how tall this is, but I can't even begin to imagine how this gate was opened or closed. When we pass over the threshold, I see that each wing of it is so thick that Gram couldn't touch both sides with his arms outstretched. The dwarves must have had some ingenious technology or specialized magic for this.
The outside looks similar to The Whisper, but is far more extensive; the massive stalactites and stalagmites make it look like the opened jaws of a gigantic beast. I get why people came up with this name.
As everybody breathes in the cold winter air their shoulders slacken as all the tension leaves their bodies. We aren't completely clear of the underground kingdom just yet, but there haven't been any signs of pursuers ever since we crossed the Bridge of Enleith. Still, I think we have earned ourselves some relaxation.
This is the western side of the Kongenssoevn. Judging by the light outside and the fact that according to the bard we walked through the night, I would say it's just after sunrise. Stepping out into the open, the world without walls and ceilings expands before me. A lush forest lies a distance below the opening of The Maw, and the song of birds travels on the wind.
It's peaceful.
"Over there." The bard comes up to me and gestures across the landscape to my left. "You can see it from here."
"See what?" I look over and notice that he's pointing at the ocean. No, that's not right. Due to our elevated position, I can see that in the misty distance there's a shore on the other side. It's a huge lake.
At the edge of that lake stands a sprawling city with a magnificent wall. It's impressive, even when compared to the demon capital of Arkaim, although it's still quite a bit smaller. The entire city is arranged in concentric half-circles rippling out from a large bridge that connects the mainland to an island on the lake. Covering that whole island is a citadel made of white stone.
The sun peeks over the mountains behind us, and the light falls onto the city, illuminating the palace's tallest tower first. I feel my breath stopping for a moment, as I take in the fantastic vista.
"That is the capital of the Kingdom of Lares, Kongenssoevn."
Afterword
This is it.
The first volume in a series of many more. The starting point of the journey featuring the loveable Cosmic Horror. The beginning of a story of which the end is written in the stars.
I would like to take my time in the afterword to explain a thing you dear readers might feel confused about in this volume: The names of Chaos and Runa/Luna.
As you may know, "Crawling Chaos" is the title of Nyarlathotep, an Outer God from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In this story, it's the race of our protagonist and her mother. So, why would she give Chaos such a name? It would be like calling your human child Sapiens, after Homo Sapiens.
The simple answer is that I came up with the name Chaos long before I decided on what her race would be called.
The in-story answer is that Chaos is actually not pronounced the same as the English "chaos" [kay-os], but the Japanese "kaosu" [kah-os]. It sounds natural to her either way, so she doesn't comment on it.
And the same is the case with Runa/Luna. In Japanese, "ru" is pronounced with a soft "r", which sounds almost like an "l". To Chaos, who knows fantasy fiction and read the name Luna a lot in those, the two are interchangeable. Of course, she knows that Runa uses the rolled "r", but at this point, she has turned it into a nickname for the half-elf.
In either case, I'm running out of space, so I'd like to use it to say my thanks to all the people who helped me realize this book.
Firstly, a heartfelt Thank You to the artist of this volume's wonderful cover, and my longest-time supporter - my very own mother. You have supported my every decision in life and been the greatest driving force leading to this moment.
Secondly, a huge shout-out to all my Patrons who supported me throughout my Patreon-career. A special Thank You to those who remained with me up to the release, even as my updates became very sporadic for the sake of finally creating this book:
Lars Henschel, ashadun,
Sager ALSoqair, Sawyer Aubrey, Mark,
Robin Voigt, Demian Buckle, Dante Perez, Cryostorm,
taichi1082, Oracle, Cheshire Fish,
and twelve more.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all my readers! Whether you joined me on this journey from the very beginning; found it during any one of the more than one hundred released chapters at the time of this volume's publishing; or learned about this story through this very book itself, I say to you: Welcome to the Chaos!
With these words, I close the pages on this volume, and hope to see you again in the next book!
April 2018
J.J. Pavlov (Meakashi)
