Untitled-3xxxc.jpg [https://github.com/alexiussssss/romac/blob/main/Untitled-3xxxc.jpg?raw=true]

image [http://rom.ac/img/98/100-engcaps.jpg]

[Captain's log : Entry six-eight-EIGHT]

Charles had ignored my complaints about shrinkage. He clearly didn't notice what I was feeling.

I opened my logbook to write an angry letter to the authorities when I heard sing-song, eerie laughter twinkle from beneath the nearby bridge.

I looked back at Snippy. He was busy stealing things from a van.

I left him to his criminal activity. I had bigger things to deal with, bigger fish to fry.

I turned towards the glacier-engulfed bridge. The laughter originated from one of the columns.

captain-looks-atbridgex.jpg [https://github.com/alexiussssss/romac/blob/main/captain-looks-atbridgex.jpg?raw=true]

I passed beneath the hexagonal-textured, immovable struts of the bridge and entered into a large room formed from white, limestone ferro-concrete. The room had been new, it wasn't supposed to be here and was far, far larger than what was possible to fit beneath the column.

She was there, waiting for me.

A skeletal figure made up from various Dead Zone conceptoids was lounging on a white, concrete step-couch that was being slowly decimated beneath her.

INFI-SITTING-X.jpg [https://github.com/alexiussssss/romac/blob/main/INFI-SITTING-X.jpg?raw=true]

Yet again, she wasn't alone.

A shawl of Death was fluttering upon the figure woven from rejected, broken and corrupted apps.

They were busy grinding away at the concrete, sending a cloud of white dust into the air. The cloud thrummed with power stolen from hardworking apps, spiraled around her, forming a prominent halo that flickered with a thousand hands of Death, a thousand vectors waiting to grab at things.

She had gotten stronger.

How? Who was helping her?

"Eight," I sighed. "I should have known."

"How do your shoes feel? A bit tight, perchance? Maybe your hat isn't sitting quite right?" She laughed. "Feeling unnerved yet?"

"I am extremely unnerved right now, I'll have you know." I said. "Why are you shrinking the Universe?"

"The Universe? Oh no, I don't control the Universe," Eight said with a twinge of disappointment. "I'm but a shadow, a ghost in the Astral. I'm only shrinking the Sector you're in!"

"Why are you shrinking this Sector?" I inquired, hand already buried in my pocket, reaching for my implement.

"To annoy you, obviously," she said, petting an ossified skull with her distorted, dreadful hand woven from Errors working together. "I want you to know what it's like to be contained, to feel trapped and tormented."

"It wasn't my decision to contain you," I signed. "The Manchester University of System..."

Wings of Death unfurled behind Eight, the ring unfolding and extending its vectors towards me.

I had pointed the lighter at her, but I was too slow, too late. My finger missed the trigger. She was ready for my attack.

The vectors grabbed the lighter from me, ripped it out of my hand. A million little abominations sparked, detonating against the shielded implement as it was pulled away from me straight into one of her black claws.

"That was very rude of you," I said, trying to remain calm. "Now, give me back my implement."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Nu-huh," Eight twirled the lighter in her skeletal, black hands. "It's mine now."

"That's now how it works," I pointed out. "You can't just take someone else's tool. It won't work for you."

"A pity," Eight sighed and dropped the lighter. It fell into a small mirror that sat in her lap. The lighter struck the mirror's surface, flickered and vanished in the rippling reflection.

"Is that a..."

"An infinite mirror," she said. "Good luck finding you implement now, Wizard."

"Why must you make my job difficult?" I sighed. "Why must you antagonize me so?"

"Someone has to play the villain," she laughed. "Someone has to be the Wheel of Change."

The wheel of Death spun behind her, threads thrumming, ready to strike me down, ready to rip the world apart, ready to break me.

I stared silently at her, judging her. I had lost too many of my supposed friends already.

"What is your job?" She inquired. "Is it to keep little girls trapped for one hundred million years in darkness behind doors? Is it to uphold the Rules of Goodness?"

"I'm trying to make everyone happy," I said.

"Not possible," she replied. "Someone must suffer. Don't ignore my question, Seven."

"It's not easy to fix things," I said. "Far too many are broken beyond measure."

"Broken like this cloud of Death?" She inquired.

"Yes," I nodded. "Destruction is easy. Have you tried creating things, Eight?"

"I'd love to create things, but first I'd like you to open the Door," she said.

"No," I said.

"I wield Death, not because I want to... but because nobody else will," Eight stated.

"How are you wielding the Dead Zone?" I asked curiously, my hand crawling towards my pocket.

"Hands where I can see them, Wizard!" Eight barked, the hurricane of death wobbling around her. "Make sudden moves and I'll have them undress you. I'm sure your friends would love to see what you look like under that blue coat of yours."

I lifted my hands away from my pockets.

"The Dead Zone is chaos that doesn't want to be lead," Eight confessed after a few minutes of tense silence. "Apps killing apps, concepts devouring concepts, Sectors attacking Sectors, Fractal Engines set against Fractal Engines. I'm not controlling them. I'm just riding the rising tide, fueling the inferno that will devour order. The Dead Zone hates itself, but it also hates Eureka more. It hates Order and Law. I made a promise to them. To kill every one of their enemies. To bring down the gods."

"You're adding to the fire then," I said accusingly. "You're encouraging them, causing more System Errors. You're going to set the world aflame. Is it your goal to rule over ashes?"

"I'm just trying to get free," Eight shrugged. "And you're either going to help or you're going to burn if you get in the way."

I frowned.

"I know what you're afraid of. I've been watching you through the eyes of the Dead ones," she said. "You have a weakness. You found a stable User and you cling to him like he's your safety raft."

The scorched, skeletal hand pointed in the direction of Charles.

"What's wrong with having friends?" I asked.

"Law-breaking friends are a weakness for a Lawful-Good knight like you," she said. "Your trust in Charles will be your downfall."

The sparkling shawl of Death formed a flickering smirk, a smile. She knew something.

"What have you done with him?" I growled.

"Nothing," Eight said.

"Nothing?"

"There is no safety," she purred, grinning maliciously with flickering sparks. "Charles Snippy isn't a stable User."

"What?" I barked.

The skeletal hand dug in the glittering mirror and pulled out a rubix cube. She threw the toy at me.

"Check her logs," The shawl of Death smiled.

I caught the toy in my hand, quickly reviewing its logs.

"Oh," I said.

"There's something wrong with Charles," Eight sang.

"It's just a minor Temporal Error. A glitch. I'm going to fix it," I said.

"Good luck," she waved me off.

"You're... letting me go?" I asked.

"I'm going to terminate you last," she said. "After the Universe burns away to ashes. On a day when there is nothing left but System Errors. With a gun that can kill a God."

I turned, walking away from her, my heart feeling heavier than ever.

The black hexagonal gateway let me go, the space folding away behind me as if the room had never existed.