Crowds are motivated by spectacles of violence.

Never is this more true than in an environment primed for death. Their initial reaction to the extraordinary demise of 139 was to cheer and bray for more along those lines. The revelation then that the death they cheered was their leader’s was a minor one, spurned by the lack of any loud authoritative voice to tell them what would happen next.

Begrudgingly, something had to be done.

They whispered to their neighbors, “Do you have a Number? Have you killed a Number?” It was in hushed whispers, one on one confessions, the first real conversations most of them had had in weeks. Their recent life had been killing or watching the act, a major benefit is you do not need to talk to do either well.

Most of them hadn’t, you could always tell the liars by the way they would answer quickly and then try and challenge the one asking. This engineered several duels that thinned the ranks and made the line of succession easier to follow. This clan was one of convenience, only kept stable by the innate comfort of numbers (the lowercase kind, they killed the uppercase)

Finally one came forward with the name of 53. She had killed three, and she found joy in how little outside of that she could share about herself. Stepping out from her small hole, cohabitated by five others who only now looked at her with respect, she took a deep breath, ready to dive in and take her destiny.

But destiny must be manifested, it is clear to those with vision. 53 was upstaged by 22.5 (where the decimal came from no one would ever know). He was one who had manifested destiny, his Remark was a flag in orange, black, and green. He called it Spangled, and it was not the colors of Gutworth but the colors of the world. And if they weren’t he would make it so. Spangled went pole first through her head (the back of it) and it crashed out with fanfare on the other end. Out of the gaping wound came a pyrotechnic show of fireworks and lighting that got the crowd's attention. He had in his mind vague concepts of leadership, and he knew with every kill those concepts would become clearer. The torn clothes he wore shifted noisily into a suit, more fitting for the role he had inherited.

“I have authority,” and he walked forward, a white staircase manifesting in front of him.

…

Devon didn’t fully understand what was happening, but she saw that freak spear someone in the head and walk down a staircase floating in the sky, and it became clear to her things wouldn’t be getting any better, “I think we should go now.”

”I’m trying to find a way to open up the front of this mechanism,” Devon caught Adam before he could fly out of sight.

”Wait, wait! I have a plan,” she motioned for Collapse, the others were busy trying to fight flag guy long range or keep anyone scaling the ship off.

Collapse signed something.

”She just said let's hear it,” Trip yelled, stabbing a laughing duelist as they jostled on the railing, trying to get over.

“Okay, okay, um,” every second more and more of the crowd was diving in, they’d sink the boat before they could escape. Another jumped over and started summoning something nasty, but was cut off midway by a cut midway, courtesy of Hailien. “Your Remark controls luck right?”

”It can create a positive effect of my choice immediately followed by a negative choice of equal value,” Trip translated. A soaking wet duelist flopped to the ground and produced a chair. To sit in, one would reckon. Dive tackled them before they could.

”That sounds good,” she shoved Adam into Collapse’s hand. The girl looked down with confusion, as if this wasn’t what they had just agreed to.

“Devon, communication is gonna be impossible between us.”

“No time!” A lanky duelist encased in a clump of spikes rushed them. Devon tripped the top heavy psycho and he fell straight through the eggshell. She saw Adam’s tiny scratch of a body zoom up a hatch far above, Collapse hanging on for dear life.

In the walls came aberrations, summoned by the man with a wave of his flag. Perhaps they had been lurking in the ship, perhaps they had been unknowingly collected along with the Eggshell.

A big something with too many hands climbed out from the water. It jumped and landed with a wet thud on the Eggshell. Another with dozens of eyes pressed up against a translucent stomach peeled open a part of the wall and got out slowly, testing the open air the way one tests out the temperature of a bath, through its arrival on the ship was just as clumsy, it’s massive frame rocking the boat to the left and utterly destroying the railing on that side.

“One of these will be our guiding light,” the man with the flag said. A third monster, a tiny head encased in a fleshy mound of blisters, slithered out, “A strong nation needs an animal.”

“What the fuck is his Remark?,” Stumble asked. Devon was shocked to see her conscious and seemingly lucid.

“No idea, but I bet he won’t take another step,” Trip said, tangling with the many handed aberration.

“Easy words for those who want everything handed to them,” he took a step forward with a wink, “but I am someone who seeks opportunities and goes out and takes-“

He froze, the condition of Trip’s Remark met. This hadn’t stopped the monsters he summoned, they had already killed the few pirate duelists who remained on the ship and the others had jumped or fell dead to the Yucian floor below.

“Focus on the Terror 3!” Hailien snapped her fingers and threw her Remark at the many handed one. Its limbs came off like grass to a weed whacker.

Devon moved to help, but the now lucid Stumble blocked her way. She was strangely relaxed, and had her arms folded, no Remark in sight, “that’s a Terror level 2”, she pointed to port side, at the one with eyes in its stomach that Dive and Trip were dealing with. “That's a Terror level 3”

“Whatever,” she left Stumble in as disrespectful a way as she could, throwing a hand back and grinding up chips of chitin from the deck.

“Adam, how’s it going, did you find a control room?” She called out. There was enough of a fracas that no one noticed or cared that she was shouting at no one. The head of the third rolled by in time with Devon’s stride before veering off course and falling off the eggshell.

”We did. She’s rolled the dice several times now, all low rolls, which I take to be bad, because nothing noticeably bad has happened to us. Therefore, nothing good either.”

She had to groan. Out came a lazy swing from the Terror 3, she jumped over it and landed without interrupting her dash towards it. She was dangerously close to its belly now and still unarmed. The dozens of eyes in its stomach all stared back at her. It was hard not to dwell on how familiar that gaze felt.

“Come back, right now!”

“I need to bring Collapse back, Devon, I can’t just leave her here.”

“You can, actually,” she said, “just for a moment…”

She got into her go-to stance and let out a slow left jab, her right guarding her face, her left leg moving with the corresponding arm, slowly shifting her body to the right. It came off like a misguided moment of bravado. The Terror 3 only offered her a glance, too concerned with the ones who actually seemed like a threat.

”Wait, what are you doing?”

Her left arm grazed the stomach, the eyes bumping against the membrane and trying to engulf it. She opened her fist and angled it to the right.

Adam came the long way to guarantee the trajectory. He popped into Devon’s waiting hand and his sharp side pierced the belly. The eyes retreated but tough shit. She ripped and tore through the gut, ripped and tore real good. A massive gash in its stomach, made as if it was a curtain. The eyes came out in an avalanche of embryonic fluid. Somehow Devon knew it was embryonic fluid, she got that from Adam, she wished she hadn’t. She held her breath and moved away, the fluid was thick enough that it caved in the parts of the floor where it piled up. Adam slipped out and went back the way he came.

They were passing the holes in the wall, soon to be met with the ceiling and with no room left to breathe. The walls shook and stucco fell from the ceiling in crumbles. The part immediately above them cracked like ice.

”We got a seven, anything changed on your end?”

With a screech the metal gates of the ship’s front lowered, revealing a wall of blinding light that slowly shifted to blue.

”Oh fuck it worked! Come back here now!’

What remained of the eggshell wouldn’t survive the journey. She pointed down to the Yucian floor and jumped. She heard the thuds and groans of the others as they followed.

Something tight wrapped around her and she tried to tear at it.

”No, don't!” Dive waved his fishing pole Remark, which he planted into Yucian. One of several of his lines were tied around Devon, the other lines were taught against the wrists of the Fall Collective. Everyone was accounted for, except for Tremble.

Fuck her.

The waves lashed violently as the last parts of the eggshell fell away, the slab of Yucian served shockingly well as a raft and slid down the water to the gate that was getting larger and larger, they could see the Helot poking out.

Adam crashed out of the waves with Collapse holding on. Trip caught her just as the waves tipped up and the Yucian raft plummeted down into the yawning sky.

…

The damned crustacean ship was a marvel of engineering, even on fire its massive metal claws continued to twitch and lash out while its search beam eyes pierced the heavens. Stumble didn’t know much about mechanicals or how they worked, but she knew what made her eyes dazzle.

Today, that was literal. The string in her eye wiggled and glowed, its hue shifting as it coiled and writhed around her cornea, reflected against the greens and reds of the burning mechanical. It was kind of like the floaters she had gotten from the Legacy, but those had gone bad, just like the Legacy.

“The Legacy is a bloated corpse so putrid even the bloatflies won’t eat it,” the string said, “now is the time of the wyrm.”

She giggled, and clutched the large barrel full of watches tighter. There was something in the barrel String needed, but he wouldn’t say what.

”You say something?” Trip shot her an accusing look. He had been onto her since the beginning, didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut or his eyes closed. The string in her eye tried to remain as still as it could, a wandering pupil would attract suspicion.

”Oh… just gleeful to be alive. It’s a miracle, truly.”

”Yes… they’ll buy that, they’ll buy that indeed.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Yeah… shame Tremble died,” Trip said. He didn’t think it was a shame, he was lying.

”Well we don’t know she’s dead for sure.”

As if to prove her wrong, the half burned corpse of one of the pirates bubbled up from the water. A splash of salt and a scream from Trip.

Devon came over to see what all the fuss was about. She gave them both a side eye when she saw it was nothing, and slunk back over to Hailien.

”Oh… of course those two are talking.”

Brat, loser, wannabe, idiot.

“There’s three actually. Don’t forget Adam. I’ve heard him speak with Devon, argue more like it. They don’t get each other, and they never will.”

She leaned into her hand like she was covering a cough.

”What… what should we do about them?”

The string stretched out into a curve. It was smiling!

“Nothing. You saved me from drowning back there, and I appreciate it. It’s not so bad to have me in your eye, is it?”

Not bad, not bad at all. His wiggles sent vibrations in Stumble’s brain that made everything seem a little more clearer. Hailien had her chance, she was nothing compared to the Wyrm.

Who exactly the Wyrm was and why a talking string worshipped it had not been made clear, but she knew for a fact that all would be revealed.

”And it will,” the string said, “but don’t worry your little head about that, all you gotta do is get you and Devon to the Helot. There I’ll link back up with someone very important.”

“Clive?”

Another voice, deeper and heavier, but somehow weaker. Like it had been talking for a long time and it’s throat had gone hoarse.

”Ignore her”

“Clive… What are you doing? Why are you… no matter. It’s… Yucian. You need… to save me. This current form… it’s agony.”

The raft made out of Constant flesh vibrated slightly. Stumble did a once over of the rest of the raft. Everyone else was huddled alone or in small groups, no one else noticed the shaking, and surely no one else could hear the voice of their own raft, somehow still alive.

”I think you may have confused me with someone else, ma’am, I’m just a regular piece of talking string. Nothing that strange about me outside of happening to be encased in a very pretty lady’s eyeball.”

Stumble blushed, String always knew exactly what to say.

”I have existed for months without sleep or rest… the Needles were supposed to make us like Death herself-“

“Who is a very fine woman”

“But now her embrace is the only thing I crave… I’ve been denied it… I’ve been denied for so long…”

“Hey, look at this,” String said.

He started doing fast circles in her eye, going around and around. It was the most astonishing thing she had ever seen, and she found it easier to ignore the pleas and cries for help from their dumb old former mayor.

“There must be… some way for me to be fixed… Morgan must be inconsolable, I need to be there at his side… or dead so I can finally sleep… Clive, please, help me…”

“Shut up idiot.” Stumble muttered to herself, “You’re a boat now.”

…

Their raft hit the massive torso of the Helot roughly. All of its imperfections and wear could no longer be denied. Blood and rust muddied the bronze metal. The large ridges that served as ruffles in her dress now home to thousands of birds, their nests, their corpses, and their shit.

Cradled by a wooden brace and staircase that encircled the torso was a massive door, 100 feet tall and built into her stomach. This, unlike everything else, was utterly spotless.

”Well,” Stumble said, her left eye twitching, “shall we go in?”

Just as they had gotten onto the walkway, the grand door of the Helot was pushed open.

Out walked a group of people holding hands and in a line. They were noticeable due to the sheer fact that they were not. So perfectly nondescript were they that Devon had to make a conscious effort to keep them in focus and not go wandering off to more visually interesting pastures. They were the human equivalent of drying paint.

The assumption was that they were greeters, here to welcome them to Helot. Hailien nudged Dive, who slowly offered a hand. “Hello, we’re refugees from Gutworth, we were told that this was a safe haven for-“ hand in hand, the five passed him by. A little ashamed, Dive put his hand back in his pocket. “They must not be here for us.”

“Are we sure they’re here for anyone?” Plunge asked.

Before anyone could answer, the giant doors opened again. A massive hand gripped the side of the door and pushed.

A large lanky creature about 12 feet tall walked out, his mountainous features partially covered by his cloak like black hair. Only his underbite and gourd-like nose could be seen. From between his knees emerged a beautiful man with a perfect stride. He smiled at them, and the disturbing sight of the too large man was immediately forgiven. Trip whistled, Stumble tried to do a catcall, but was elbowed into silence by Collapse.

The beautiful man took a bow, seeming well aware of his appearance. He then pointed to the still opened doorway, bracing them for something even more impressive.

Out walked a Constant.

No one said anything. Even Adam’s constant humming had ceased. Between the tall man and the beautiful one (who now very clearly were acting as bodyguards) The Constant took out a comb and furnished his already very voluptuous pompadour.

”I sense… nothing?”

It was Jeavell Death, the deathly heartthrob of Lemure’s Legacy. Devon tightened her grip around Adam. She was ready. This day would end with one less constant.

Jeavell, letting a smirk grow on his black lips, offered a hand. She was pointing beyond them.

Beyond the stairs, now at the dock, were the five people walking hand in hand. They were moments away from the sea, and showed no sign of stopping.

“You’re gonna wanna watch this.”

The five stepped off the edge and into the water. They seemed confident the dock would continue, and it was tragic that reality did not agree with them. Within seconds they were miles below the surface, still trying to move forward despite the difficulty in the action.

“Yes, you saw correctly, they just went and drowned themselves. Those are Placebos. We don't know where they come from, but they’re as dumb as you think. They walk around like they’re in a dream. You could cut off their head, and their body will keep walking. I don’t even think drowning will slow them down.” She said, shrugging.

Devon didn’t care, she was running forward, Remark held high.

“Devon, this is not wise and I can tell you agree. I sense no power from this one. We should listen to what they have to say.”

“Ten seconds!” Devon said, “Then you fucking die.”

“You’re going to kill me?” Jeavell crossed her arms. The men on either side of her drew Remarks.

“Five seconds!” She was bounding the stairs two at a time. She would kill him, she had to kill her.

“It will be pointless considering I’m no longer a Constant.”

“What?” Devon skidded to a halt, the soles of her feet burning as she slid and tripped up two more steps.

Jeavell looked down at her from one step above, hands on hips.

“You’re a smart girl, so here’s what you’re thinking.” Jeavell said. “Because I’m no longer a Constant, I no longer have the power of a Constant, meaning the fight with me will be boring and one sided, and you’re correct.” She summoned her Remark. Once an impressive lively thing of metal and corrugated sludge, it was now a sliver of flame that hovered over their hand. “Montanna revoked it, the little piece of drapery. We Constants have lost our authority, the average number not only still has their power, but it’s now strengthened. You all have a power equal to the position of 41.”

The Fall Collective talked amongst themselves, excited and already dimly aware of this. Hailien was unimpressed. “So you renounce the power you had as a Constant?”

“Not necessarily renounced, not by choice,” he said. Clearly this fact was still a sore spot.

“But yes, I’m a commoner.” She gestured at her two bodyguards. “They’re not even here for me, they, and I guess myself as well, work for 30. Now, you have some cargo to deliver to him, don’t you?”

“We certainly do,” Hailien said. She motioned urgently to Devon to help her with the barrel.

Devon was still staring at Jeavell, waiting for him to show their true colors.

Jeavell scratched her hair absentmindedly. “Yeah, you don’t trust me. Makes sense. I’m not going to kill you, if you really want to then I can’t really stop it. I’m no longer affiliated with Lemure’s Legacy. 18 and 19 aren’t either. Yeah they’re technically in the battle royale that Montanna set up. Grand, is that annoying, but they’re harmless, they wouldn’t even hurt you,” she said this last part with a forced innocence, “and lots of people want to hurt you Devon.”

18 and the beautiful 19 flashed matching smiles.

“But you still use the numbers.” Devon said. “You’re still referring to the others by their ranks. Do you even know their names?”

“Old habit I guess.” She cocked her head back. “There should be communicators inside that let you see what’s going on on the mainland, if you don’t trust me.”

With his head still angled back, she addressed the Numbers. “Okay, I welcomed them here like he asked, can I go in now? I had to cut a date short for this, literally.” The handsome one shrugged handsomely. Jeavell took this as a sign they were free, and walked briskly through the gate.

With reluctance, and with no further reason to be up there, Devon walked down the flight of stairs until she reached Hailien.

Out of earshot of the two numbers, Hailien said, “You know, if you still want to kill Jeavell. You have every right to.”

“But wouldn’t that be frowned upon? This is a place declaring itself neutral territory, as annoying as it is, we must respect that until given evidence they are not respecting it in turn.” Adam said this as if the betrayal was inevitable, Devon respected that. It made waiting feel worth it. Through it was a different tone from the one who had been so gung ho on killing Tremble.

Hailien offered them a raise of an eyebrow, “This is all pretty strange isn’t it.”

“Thank you for saying that.” Devon said. She made to help Hailien lift the barrel but the brawny Number lifted it easily with one hand, cradling it across her chest. Of course, she didn’t need any help.

“I will say it as often as the situation calls for.” She said strictly. The two were now walking up the stairs, the others not far behind them.

“It’s just… I guess a lot of this probably stems from Adam. He really cut through the ranks.” Devon said.

“You killed a Constant. It’s unprecedented,” her eyes narrowed. “What does Adam think of this?”

“I think in terms of finality. I wish I didn’t but it’s what my brain keeps resting on as a mode of comprehension. I think we are reaching the end of this city, the end of Lemure, and the end of me, most likely.”

“He, uh, also thinks this is weird.“ She frowned, not really understanding what Adam was getting at, outside of the fact that such thoughts made her nervous.

“We talking about how weird this all is?” Dive asked.

“You were standing right next to them, you buffoon, you know they are.” Trip said. His hands were behind his back and he looked as poised as usual.

“Right, right. It’s just a little something called, uh, tact. They teach that in “being a good conversationalist” school.”

“Well I was homeschooled, so it wasn’t taught.”

“Technically we all were.” Plunge said, taking up the rear and being surprisingly quiet up till now. “None of us were rich or known enough to attend the academy, and they only take, what, twelve students from here a year?” She glanced at Hailien with hope, Hailien was walking in front of her, and didn’t seem to notice that she was talking. “If Lemure’s Legacy is destroyed, do you think maybe we could get our own school here? Maybe… give people a future that doesn’t involve having to kill.”

“Is it true that things are different outside the drum? I heard things were different outside the drum.” Dive said.

“It has to be. Especially in the Academy, no way does that place have murder games.”

“I always suspected we were the backwater outlier of a world far more civilized.” Trip shrugged. “Too bad we can’t confirm that.”

Collapse signed something that caused them to all burst into laughter.

There were a good ten steps before Hailien responded. “Johann had been to almost every city in Gehenna. He had been all over due to his role as Envoy for Lemure’s Legacy. You’re only familiar with Luminescia, aren’t you?” She said this to the whole of the Fall Collective. They nodded. Devon knew about Sloan, many of the sculptures and statues that didn’t come with the town came from there.

“Well I’ll tell you this, no matter what city he went to-“

They had gotten to the top of the stairs now, the gates open and beckoning to them. She turned to the rest of the group, her eyes dull.

“- he always told me it was far, far worse.”