Chapter 91: Wave Collapse

Pumpkin had expected something impressive from Schrodiner’s appearance; it was hard not to, given how much Ralph had hyped him up, never mind his extraordinary level. Pumpkin thought himself prepared to witness a storm of claws, faster than he could move but hopefully not perceive, tearing the entire assembly of cultists to pieces whilst possibly catching a few unfortunate hostages in the process, hence the prior clarification on who had to stay alive. What actually happened was simply beyond his ability to comprehend.

It started with the cultists nearest to Schrodinger: the one reaching down to scoop him up and his two companions. They were close enough for Pumpkin’s vision to take in fully, so there was no mistaking it when they turned translucent, offering him a distorted look through their bodies at the cohorts beyond, before all three of them simply popped, out of sight and out of existence. From there, the phenomenon only spread, enveloping and encompassing ever increasing numbers as a dozen men were deleted with every passing second, and there were only a few dozen to begin with. The corpses weren’t spared either, scoured clean along with their killers with inhuman efficiency.

“Even the ground?” Pumpkin whispered, awestruck as he noticed that the pools of blood decorating the floor were gradually diminishing, droplets and layers fading alongside every wave of bodies as they were scoured from existing, each part and whole indivisible before Schrodinger’s might.

After what felt like hours, tracking increasingly confusing leads, meeting Ralph and reorienting his search, levelling up, and the nerve-wracking wait in the cave, the final battle lasted all of thirteen seconds, and then there were none. None save for Schrodinger, Pumpkin, and Harvey, the latter’s restraints banished to oblivion as he slowly rose to his feet, working some circulation back into his wrists and ankles as he stood. Notably, his blindfold hadn’t been removed, an oversight which puzzled Pumpkin until he turned to Schrodinger to find the kitten sticking his tongue out.

“Best he doesn’t see my appearance, it’d be regrettable to have to kill him after your effort to save his life.”

On that reassuring note, Schrodinger himself disappeared from sight, leaving only a single remnant of his passing.

[Schrodinger would like to add you as a Contact. Y/N?]

Pumpkin slammed yes faster than he’d ever done before, accepting the request with indecent haste, because as affable as the white cat had been, Schrodinger was simply not the kind of existence he could afford to say ‘no’ to.

[Contacts

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Will Swindell - Level None of Your Business

Ralph - Level 1 Cat

Schrodinger - I do not exist]

“Another funny one,” Pumpkin sighed, bemoaning the state of his Contacts list, wherein only Ralph appeared normal, and even that was questionable; the old black cat seemed to know too much, and whether that was due to seniority or something more unusual was very much up in the air.

“Pumpkin? Is that you?” Harvey asked, having disposed of the blindfold and immediately latched on to the only familiar sight in a very unfamiliar place. “How did you find me? Did you see who rescued me?”

Pumpkin meowed, because while the veteran Thief was a multi-talented man, he did not have the ability to speak Cat.

“Never mind,” Harvey muttered, raising his hands to his ears as he began to reach for his Contacts. “Still unavailable. How did they manage to cut off contact, I wonder? For it to affect both you and Will, was it applied while we were still together in the caravan, or as a sympathetic effect once they got a hold of me? No survivors to question either, bah.”

Before Pumpkin could decide how to approach the rather shaken Thief, a sudden surge of energy erupted from him, as did a dark cloud of impurities from every pore. It carried a rather disagreeable smell, one that had him shaking himself with vigour, attempting to banish even the lingering remnants from his coat. Harvey was far luckier in comparison, getting only a tenth of the potency if that, showing the benefits of a relatively lacking sense of smell. Altogether, this was rather good news, which naturally meant that it was immediately counterbalanced by a sudden tremor that nearly brought them both to their knees. Pumpkin darted towards the tunnel, fearing an earthquake, only to stop when that single tremor failed to be replicated. Granted, he could now hear the din of clashing blades, profanity and gunpowder, but armed conflict was still much preferable to being buried alive, so he still counted that as a win.

[Will is calling you. Answer? Y/N.]

“So that was what kept us from getting in touch,” Pumpkin gasped, connecting the dots even as he accepted the call. “Either the cloud or the earthquake, but more likely the cloud.”

He then took in a lungful of residue, and devolved into gagging.

“It worked this time!” Will’s excited voice could be heard, suggesting that he’d attempted this quite a few times on his end.

“Will? Is that you? I’m a bit busy right now.” Pumpkin huffed, panting for breath as he tried to answer while simultaneously taking in as little from his nose as possible.

“Where are you? What’s going on over there?” Will asked, his concern clear in his tone of voice.

Pumpkin didn’t answer immediately, moving further down the tunnel to ditch the lingering odour before he began his tale in full.

“Well, you see…”

—

“...and then Harvey took his blindfold off, and asked where we were. I couldn’t really answer him, which was when the ground shook, people started shouting upstairs, and you gave me a call.”

“What do I even say to that?” I groaned, having expected a far more mundane conversation involving a few rats hunted for sport and dinner.

Granted, Pumpkin did find some rats, so he hadn’t lied to me; it was everything else he found that was a problem. Still, at least he and Harvey were both safe, which meant the night hadn’t gone entirely to the dogs. One problem solved, a hundred left to go, I thought wryly, as I ended the call and began to explain what had happened to Kyle and the Adjudicator.