Chapter 34 - Screwed (DEMI)

Demi

The Flow

“Wow, it looks like you have competition,” Emporos muttered, taking a slurp of his lemonade and popping a handful of his nimbus popcorn.

That’s what he called those fluffy white kernels.

I’d tried to make my own but they just didn’t come out the same.

Which is why I had to rip my painted eyes away from those possibly delicious fluff balls, the merchant smirking me at me as he noticed. I hated that. Hated it a lot.

Ahh, and he was still pointing at the viewing portal. The one where the Cheater was still very much alive – despite how much I’d been rooting for Manslaughter to pry open that battle onesie like a fresh can of silverfin. I might even have been counting on it. Not that I was going to let Emporos know that.

But the merchant was pointing at Cole…

“Competition?” I sneered, mustering all the false bravado that could fit in my tiny, empty robe. “Some elf that got raped by a spiritual omelet?”

It was a far cry from a space turtle. And I should know after the Bestiary tutorial.

“I mean, it did manage to infect his vessel and spirit,” Emporos shot back. “Which means it has someone on the inside now. Someone close to Nyx.”

“Someone helping the Cheater, you mean,” I retorted. “All it managed to do was give him an even stronger power – one he’ll no doubt abuse in some horrible, weird way.”

“Hmm,” Emporos hummed. “If that’s how you see it…”

Then he just trailed off, watching the show.

He kept doing this – lording his experience over me. Forcing me to keep asking all of these questions. Like what were those kernels made of? What did he melt over the top? Then he sprinkled something rainbow-colored and powdery on it—

See? It was like he was messing with me. Trying to break me.

But the joke was on him! I was top of my class – which meant I’d also passed the orientation’s torture segment with flying colors. They’d tortured me for eons and gotten nothing. Nothing at all. Which is why I wouldn’t break now.

I would just, um, bend. Slightly. Out of curiosity.

“Is there another way to see it?” I asked finally.

I didn’t want to and regretted it immediately as the demon’s mask pivoted back to me, his eyes smoldering and painted lips curled into a macabre grin.

“You don’t think it’s dangerous to give him this power? To gaslight anyone? This crazy person barely holding his fragile psyche together with a patchwork of bromance and delusion? He’s already having blackouts – memory loss. This is just the beginning. And now, with enough victims and ambient nimbus, he could warp time and space itself – form a sort of temporary gate, if you will. One that would trap even him.”

“Wait… what? Is that possible?” I gasped.

“Oh, it is,” Emporos replied with a grim smile. “When corrupted spirits grow strong enough, they start to have their own spiritual mass – their own gravity, if you will. That’s how corrupted gates typically form; why your Cheater’s spirit is always so hungry. And the egg spirit basically gave him an amplifier. If Nyx were to lose control, to give into that hunger, he might consume everything… even himself.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Would he even be able to tell the difference?”

He shook his head. “It was a clever move. It seems the Flow has gotten tired of waiting for him to die… or for his Skafos to intervene.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

My painted teeth were grinding.

I couldn’t let that corrupted quiche claim all the credit – not after I’d come this far. I had to do something – something besides avoid asking Emporos questions and completing this stupid Tutorial. If only the Cheater would hurry up and get to the gate! Wasn’t he curious about those gems he’d eaten? He hadn’t even found a Guidepost yet! Just engaged in this endless silliness with his scaly bromate and his so-called “mother-in-law.”

At this rate, even if he got to the gate, he probably wouldn’t even enter it. Instead, the Cheater would probably just go on some crazy, protracted monologue all designed to fool his “audience” while he set up some stupid event for him and his bromate.

If only the gate could just suck him inside—

Woah. I just had the best idea.

But, like, in reverse.

Hadn’t Emporos said Nyx could use the gaslight spirit to form a temporary gate – one that altered the Five Rivers itself? If that was possible, then couldn’t I do the same? Force the gate to expand its power out into the Five Rivers? Yeah, that made sense.

And my tablet soon indicated that was actually a thing.

Go Demi! I knew I had it in me!

It was called a domain-type gate. There was even a helpful description…

Introduction to Domain-Type Gates

Corrupted gates are distinguished by both their layout and their method of generating nimbus. A traditional gate conjures creatures that emerge from the gate, destroying and killing local flora and fauna to harvest nimbus. However, it is possible for a gate to adopt a different approach to nimbus gathering.

Specifically, a corrupted gate may expand its nimbus into the surrounding environment, altering the surrounding matter and extending the gate’s “domain” into the Five Rivers. Often some sort of prize or reward is offered at the epicenter of the gate – one intended to draw in native fauna. Then the gate closes around the victim, killing it and absorbing its nimbus.

However, such gates have also been known to have drawbacks, including… (tap for more)

I eyed those stupid parenthesis suspiciously, sparing a glance at Emporos – however, my squatter was still focused on the screen. So, I tapped it. Discreetly.

Error. Permission Denied.

You lack the required training to access this information.

Please complete the Domain Gate Tutorial to continue.

“Damn it,” I hissed.

“Ahh, something wrong?” Emporos asked, suddenly standing at my shoulder.

I spun, whirling my tablet away from him, my painted eyes glaring. “Back across your line. You know the rules,” I snapped at him as I pointed at the line of fluffy nimbus I’d painted across the floor of my office, his wagon crammed into the other side.

“Ahh, yes. My apologies,” he replied, not looking sorry at all. “You just seemed distraught,” he offered as he stepped back over the line.

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” I replied.

“Really? You don’t need any assistance?”

I did. I really, really did. But at the same time, I didn’t trust Emporos. I’d already agreed to his stupid trade – which really just seemed like I’d given up the viewing portals for free. But I tried to tell myself it was okay. If the Cheater survived the next gate, the merchant had promised to help me bypass the Tutorials. All of them.

I should ask for help. Or, at the very least, I should complete the tutorial first. Especially after what happened last time with PK – or, err, I meant the Toxifovos. Making changes without having complete information was dangerous. It could blow up in my face.

And there was no downside to asking him for help – at least, not obviously.

But that just made me more suspicious of Emporos.

“I’m fine,” I answered, tapping at my tablet. “Just making some routine adjustments to the gate. Checking to make sure nothing changed,” I explained.

Also, dramatically expanding its power, converting it into a domain-type gate, and selecting the perfect prize to place at its center – one the Cheater would never be able to resist in a million, billion cycles. You know, doing my job.

“Well, alright,” Emporos replied with a shrug. “Could you switch the portal back to Horus and Eris? Nyx seems like he’s going to be tinkering for a while.”

I sighed, settling back on my Floaty Couch®. Was that all I was to him now? The remote control for the viewing portal—

Although, my painted eyes soon went round, staring in horror as the viewing portal shifted to a familiar, insane cottage nestled beside a poisonous lake. The one where Horus and Eris were still staying with no obvious plan to ever leave.

And with it came another thought; another niggling doubt.

Maybe… maybe I wasn’t very good at this job.