“That is to say---” Calypso pushed herself into the conversation, even in the physical sense as she stepped up towards the side of the duo. “—That this information is rather…”

Calypso cursed herself for not having the word available, that she let her vulnerability shine through as her eyes searched about towards the ground as she tried to think so fast.

“Sorry,” Calypso then gulped, finding the word under this much pressure. “It’s rather startling to us… There is no judgement here, if anything, we understand the weight of such a decision and can’t imagine us making the same calls. On behalf of everyone present, we are sympathetic to your mission, Richard.”

Now to clutch her teeth, hiding behind her stone-face expression. Hoping that not only did this man not sense the unease she had, but is willing to buy such a bold-faced lie in the first place.

“…” Richard then proceeded to sigh. “Thank you, ‘Cal’.”

“Calypso,” the skeletal monster girl answered, manually putting icing on the cake herself.

“Beautiful name.”

She nodded, as thanks and also still being on tenterhooks enough to be wary of speaking. The entire gesture being much more grand compared to the others, telling him their names. “Gale” could be uncommon, but there’s only the one “Calypso”.

“If I may be so bold…” Calypso began, trying so desperately hard to find the right words. “I assume Cassie… Somehow, didn’t honor your deal? What happens if one doesn’t…?”

“Excellent questions,” Richard had some semblance of airiness back in his tone. “To start, well, a pact is all about honor and blood. Violating either aspect does hold very, very harsh consequences… Think of it as debt, but physical. The longer you don’t take care of it, the more it accrues. And the more it accrues, the more weight that crushes you, leaving you with two options.”

He then raised two of his leather fingers, “Either go back and work off the debt by doing the original agreement—plus serving more penalties decided by the ‘pact-mate’… Or, simply let the debt crush you.”

Richard shook his head and let his arm flop to his side.

“Unfortunately, my pact-mate is not only strong enough to withstand this crush… But simply doesn’t care to honor it anymore. That, and in her twisted way, she IS serving her end of the deal…”

“That uh,” Gale interjected. “Sounds like a problem.”

“And I wish that was simply it. But what’s currently happening is much, much worse.”

Calypso clicked it into place. “Terrortide…?”

Richard shot his “gaze” at Calypso.

Which immediately caused the skeletal girl to raise her hands in defense, “We only know of the word… It’s rather hard to ignore, after all…” Electing to leave out being at the arena, and being nearly killed by the runes that’s causing such.

“Right…” Richard shivered, adjusted his “neck” while exhaling comically. “If I knew I was giving an entire lecture, I would’ve dressed in warmer clothes…”

“I’m not that chilly…” Gale glanced down at herself, “And I’m barely wearing a thing—”

“That’s because we run at over 100 degrees, Gale,” Calypso answered as if she were a parent.

As Gale cooed in realization, Richard’s chuckles grew louder over such. “What a merry bunch, you all are. You’re making a rather hopeless situation much more tolerable…”

Even the smugness from the gnat evaporated, after hearing that. “Ooooh… That bad, huh?”

The boy abruptly pulled back his mask, causing the three monsters to be startled.

“Dude, what the fuc--?!” the gnat screamed.

“It’s best for you all to hear this tale as clearly as you can…” Richard’s lips were unveiled, and his unmuffled voice stern. The gesture alone caused the girls to shut themselves up, the words were just overkill.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Richard sighed, “Once upon a time, a time that we still cannot remember in full… There existed a being so powerful, so terrifying, that simply knowing that it was coming after you would drive people and monsters into such fear, they’d kill themselves due to such. For many, it was a preferable fate.”

After letting those words truly hang in the cold air, Richard began to pace back and forth, hands tucked in his pockets.

“When I say that this… Thing was a titan, there was truly no way to stop it. A Subsumed so mighty that it became virtually impossible to slay it. And that eventually led it to become virtually immortal, since no man, monster, weapon, sickness, and environment could stop it. It’s name—which was never spoken due to the fear of it appearing once it heard the name spoken… Was Apex. The Apex Subsumed.”

“…Apex. Subsumed?” the gnat blinked her multiple-reflected eyes in surprise.

“‘The Abominationatius’ proved to be a mouthful,” Richard sighed to relax himself. “A beast that killed so many, that the corpses were still caked and littered about its colossal frame. Inspired such a wave of panic that entire armies had to face it, if it meant getting out with a quarter of the population surviving, when it was crossing into their land. And it wasn’t just a beast in brutality, but cunning… Those fools without fear, they thought it couldn’t think.”

He took his hand out of the pocket, crouching down as the ground covered in that weird substance separated, “giving” him a medium sized rock from the foliage.

“Apex once fell an entire army, that was organized brilliantly by a warmongering general that’s name was lost to time—just by picking up a boulder and aiming in such a way that it managed to crush every single formation that was lying in wait for it.”

He then tossed the rock, away from everyone that was present. The sounds of it landing were so crisp, because everyone present were stunned into silence.

“That general didn’t even know what happened, until he saw Apex itself go out of its way to walk around him into the sunset. Later that night, that man killed himself due to the guilt. We will never know his name… But we will forever know the tale of his terrible failure.”

“Holy fuck,” the gnat raked her claws down her cheeks, shaking her head.

“Is she summoning this thing after all of us--?!” Gale sounded on the verge of tears. Calypso did not at all blame her, she was just too busy shaking to do anything else.

“No no no no no no…” Richard tried to calm everyone down. “Just keep listening… See, because Apex was so mighty… It itself came to a revelation, that caused it to finally stop prowling the world and stand in the sea. It was smart, after all… It reasoned that despite the clear advantaged it had, somehow—someway, fate was going to correct this. That it would produce something as impossible as it, or create a scenario that was so impossible, that it would prove to be it’s downfall…”

Richard shook his head. “To say that it took this realization well, the statement might as well be a lie.”

He rubbed his “forehead” again, before sucking his teeth briefly before resuming, “It caused such a horrid reign of terror, to commit so many horrible acts to prove that it’s legacy will endure for countless eons… Which did prove to be the thing that killed it… That the little survivors that were left had nothing to them that they HAD to continue it’s words. Thus, the first Terrortide was enacted.”

Calypso finally regained the courage to breathe. It took a bit for her to regain the courage to speak again, “S-so that’s it…? Trying to top the Apex Subsumed? Cassie wants to become the next one…?”

“Yes. But to further clarify, because… That was a lot…”

Richard rubbed his hands together, somehow getting faster, “Terrortide is actually something that existed before the Apex. It was the very hex that the Subsumed placed on themselves—to undermine us and force us to return to being savage? The Apex Subsumed showed that it could be amended, that hex, by performing acts of violence that proves a new statement, a new status quo for the Subsumed to live by, to follow… Presenting such towards the Fates That Be.”

He gestured his hands along with the explanation, with each new term, “These words become physical—becoming the Terrorversum, acting agents that apply these new maxims ‘the author’ came up with. They manifest due to the author creating places of ‘worship’ called Terrorsigns. They have to start committing their horrible acts of violence in these places, causing once normal locales to become haunted by their evil… These elements cause darkness to fall. Insanity to the soon-to-be victims. All for the neighboring Subsumed to either shed their hides and watch what happens—or join in the author’s crusade, styling themselves after them in tribute.”

Calypso snapped her head angrily at that damn gnat, “And you helped this bitch to do this--?”

“I did not know anything about this!” she waved her claws at Calypso. “I tried drilling her for information—she threatened to kill me, so I had to stop and-and try to search for context clues on my own… I knew she was planning a massacre but—this is so much fucking worse…”

Gale looked towards the scarecrow boy, nervously with her voice trembling, “I-is there a way to stop her, Richie…?”

“Thankfully, there is,” his smile around Gale wasn’t at all faked, now that Calypso could see it. “And it’s the very forces that she was to impress.”

“…Interesting…” the gnat twitched a tad, to tilt her head quizzically. A quirk of her transformation, Calypso assumed. “Considering they’re—it—whatever—like, ‘fate’ is bankrolling her attempts to fuck everyone over, right? So why it would be on our side too…?”

The smile instantly faded into a stern grimace, but even the disgust or anger came from a very somber place. It’s why Calypso didn’t think it was because he hated the gnat girl, this… Was from something else.

“Believe me. Fate is not on anyone’s side.”