Dissonance 21/Epilogue – The Storm that Shatters

It was difficult to say who was more annoyed after Eldred woke up: himself or the dwarves.

According to the doctor, who promptly presented him with a bill, he had been out for almost an hour. An unusually long time by hospital standards, considering they had only needed thirty minutes to patch him up. The only difficult part was the ruptured eardrums. Getting the necessary alchemical tinctures in there was precision work.

Otto was already out by the time Eldred woke up. Courtesy of that, he was more than a little miffed. That half-ogre had threatened to cut short this brilliant new life he lived. Eventually, he would die for it.

The dwarves were pissed off because a massive shockwave had gone through their mine. Eldred explained to them what had happened, but the answers he gave weren’t good enough for the obstinate trio of mine masters.

After five minutes of back and forth, the truly most annoyed party in the room revealed herself.

“Leave,” Nyx hissed at the dwarves. “My Eldred is exhausted.” They looked at each other, seemingly unimpressed by the appearance of the ghost lady. “LEAVE!” The banshee’s screech had the trio’s opinion change instantly. With all the fear in their heart multiplied, they turned tail and ran.

Eldred swung his legs out of the hospital bed and picked up his suit. It was ruined, but it was all he had to clothe himself with. The patient’s gown he wore was property of the hospital, after all. He moved slowly. The healing had fixed his injuries, but not his fatigue. He needed proper sleep in his own bed. Every one of his lethargic motions made his banshee produce annoyed noises. “You are displeased.”

“I am beyond furious,” Nyx hissed. “Otto desired to rob you from me, from our destiny. He must perish.”

“I am in full agreement,” Eldred stated.

“So must those behind him.”

To that, too, Eldred could only nod. He pushed his arm through the intact, left sleeve, then looked at his bare, right arm. The red-black chain marks still wound around it. A flex of his will summoned the obsidian weapon into his hand. “I suppose this was worth it.” He raised the weapon above his head. The surface appeared fractured but the red metal filled the cracks perfectly, resulting in a smooth, even, reflective surface. Another flex of his will and the blade was pulled into his arm, shifting out of real space as it did. “Neat.”

“You were cursed for it,” Nyx reminded him, her forlorn voice low and sharp. “A horrifically unpleasant god, testing you like that and then rewarding you with a boon and a curse when a boon is all you deserved.”

Eldred just shrugged. “Not sure what that curse is. Sounds like he wants me to fight more of his creations. Sounds up my alley.” He smiled at his banshee. “We are alive to thrive another day, Nyx. That’s what matters.”

Though she tried to keep bristling, the ghost lady eventually melted away like an ice cube beneath the sun. She drifted close, stealing a kiss from his lips. It turned into a deeply more involved affair, involving a lot of time and tongue. Five minutes of making out later, they finally managed to get out of the hospital room.

“Let’s meet up with Avari, then we can talk about what might be behind all of this,” the driven man said. He didn’t exclude Ellie out of malice or disrespect, he just didn’t think she had the knowhow of the situation to be of much use. A couple more weeks of living in would change that.

The plan of action had Nyx’s agreement. Eldred pulled out of his phone to give his beloved gremlin a call. As he went to the contact list, her name appeared all on its own on her screen, accompanied by the buzz of an incoming call. He raised an eyebrow and picked up the phone.

“Yes?” he asked.

“The fuck did you do?” Avari asked.

“Went to explore a Tumbling Temple, got ambushed by Otto, made a covenant with Ragthar to escape – that’s about the short of it.” The quick and carefree answer floored the demonette. Eldred laughed at the small, choked sounds that came from the other end. “I can hear your mouth hanging open and it is adorable.”

“Shut up you big chunk of moron-meat!” the bratty woman snapped back.

“Why are you calling?” Nyx asked. The banshee hovered on the other side of the phone, more than close enough to hear and be heard. “Has their plan advanced to extorting us for a mission failed?”

Eldred hadn’t even considered that could happen next. Thankfully, he had a ghost lady to think about these things for him, so he could concentrate on cleaving problems out of the way. “Is there a problem?” he asked, in a low, growling voice. He would have preferred a proper night’s rest first, but if need be, he could–

“No immediate problem, but I got a call from the New Foundations and Terua wants to see us ASAP… in other words, that might have happened.”

“It could be a trap,” Nyx muttered.

“Could be,” Eldred agreed, “but I doubt it. If they wanted to harm us again, they would be abducting Avari and Ellie right now, not making us meet up somewhere.”

“We do not know of their intentions,” his banshee cautioned.

“And if anyone knows, it’d probably be Terua.”

Nyx’s frown only deepened. She did not seem truly convinced but ultimately nodded. In all decisions, she ultimately deferred to his judgement. Truly, she was too good for him. After all, he was the idiot in their relationship. Fortunately for him, his banshee seemed to have a taste for himbos.

“We’ll meet in front of the New Foundations building,” he told Avari. “Don’t bring Ellie, she’d shut down.”

“Yeah, duh,” Avari got one more bit of sass in before hanging up.

______________________________________________________________________

It was pouring in the Low-Ore district.

It wasn’t the first time Eldred had experienced rain there, but it had never been this intense. The grey curtain reduced visibility to just a few metres. It rivalled the worst days in Ever-Rain. Eldred did not like it in the slightest. Rain reminded him of the ruin his mind still was at its base. The wonky towers of grandeur he placed upon the shaky foundations of the lonely, depressed man felt all too vulnerable in times like these.

‘Perhaps a bit of introspection is good…’ Eldred thought, then accelerated his step. He had thought about it for three seconds and decided he just wanted to keep living the dream.

Even the enormous HQ of the New Foundations peeled suddenly out of the rain. Avari stood in the entrance area, the white blouse of her secretary outfit made utterly translucent by the rain she, too, had hastened through.

“Yeah, yeah, drink it all in,” the bratty shortstack greeted him, pushing up her breasts with her crossed arms. The black bra she wore beneath melded with her grey skin, making her juicy cleavage appear almost naked. Eldred elected to get a quick recharge of energy by kneeling down and burying his head between her tits. “Really?” she asked, more amused than anything else.

“Ye.” Eldred kept his muffled answer short, moving his head left to right slowly – he wanted to really get to experience it all. These tits alone were worth surviving for.

Once he had recharged, they stepped through the sliding glass doors. “Y-y-you are expected!” a pale-faced clerk greeted them. It was some guy Eldred hadn’t met before or perhaps he just hadn’t bothered to remember the face. Even now, the only reason to do so was the sheen of cold, fearful sweat on his face.

Eldred did not have to ask why. There was something unnerving in the air, a static electricity that was not fundamentally dissimilar to the way Ragthar’s presence had felt, except unfocused and way closer. It was like a mounting physical force, growing stronger as they stepped towards the elevator and then pushing down on them the entire ride up.

None of them suggested turning around. All three of them knew whoever was awaiting them up there could hunt them down with the ease of a cat chasing an elderly rat in an open field. Best to get it over with.

Avari was anchored in position when the elevator doors opened. A hand on her back, Eldred pushed along. She remembered how to walk after a moment. The air up there was painful to walk through, needling the skin as if every last one of their limbs was asleep. They slumped past the many rooms. Cauldrons bubbled wildly, the fumes pooling, too thin to rise through the thick air.

Finally, they arrived in the CEO’s office.

Gran Terua sat behind the large desk, but none of this was her doing. The oddly shaped hag was staring at the woman, seated in a guest chair. She had long, black hair and wore an outfit over a voluptuous figure that Eldred would have appreciated if he hadn’t been busy forcing air into his lungs. Both Avari and Nyx inhaled sharply, fresh water suddenly dripping from their uniforms. Hair soaked, pressed down by invisible rain.

“Unlike your companion, your reality did not Shatter immediately upon stepping in mine presence.” The woman lifted a cup to her lips, the porcelain every bit as pale as her skin. Eldred noted the doll joints of her wrist and fingers. “Your will is strong.” The woman turned towards him. She opened her eyes, fixing him with a gaze of pale blue in black oceans.

Eldred found himself in a hurricane. The room around him was no shelter, it was a bottled storm. Rain whipped by cyclonic winds pelted him. Thunder struck the ground around him. A lightning bolt came down on him and then–

It was over again. He was back in the office. All of the static electricity and thickness in the air was suddenly gone. It was enough of a relief that both Avari and Nyx dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. Eldred swayed but refused to kneel in present company.

“Why – the fuck – is NEORA the HURRICANE here?!” Avari screamed.

“You are aware of mine title?” The doll woman swung one of her bare legs over the other. The pelvic curtain settling between them hid her womanhood, but her ass was practically on full display. It was a fascinating marvel of supernatural physiology, the cheek stretching despite the moves being made by a golden doll joint that marked the transition between butt and thighs. Now that he could breathe freely, Eldred appreciated both it and the luscious amount of side boob Neora presented while she sipped her tea. “I confess confusion from this fact. All that ought to recognise me, I thought I would recognise in turn.” Her blue eyes scanned Avari for a second before falling shut again. “Yet, I recognise you not.”

“I’m just a nobody to a freak of nature like you,” Avari responded.

That was when Eldred recognised the name. Neora – the one who held the record for fastest Cultivation in the local facility. Two Cores in nineteen days and it did not seem she had stopped breaking records in the two years since. “How many Cores have you Cultivated?” Eldred wanted to know.

“I am on the cusp of my eighth,” Neora disclosed readily.

Avari just let out a hysteric laugh while Nyx continued in her silence. Though Eldred wasn’t sure how impressive that was, after having experienced both her and Ragthar’s presence, he was certain that the woman before him could at the very least stall the planet-destroying deity.

“Be at ease, I have come to test you following mine aid unseen. Whatever the outcome of it would have been, I mean you no harm.” Neora put her tea cup down. Terua was swift to pour her a new cup. “Much obliged, though wasteful. I do not intend to stay much longer.”

“O-oh, okay…?” the hag twitched nervously. Even with the oppressive presence removed, it must have been hard for her to be in the presence of someone that could eliminate the entire district in an afternoon.

“You have fought the craven half-ogre and emerged alive. Verily, you must be suspecting of his actions not being entirely his own?”

“He confessed to being tasked,” Nyx weighed in.

“Indeed. You have met the one who tasked him. She goes as Anna among the clerks.”

Neora waited for several seconds. One of her eyes flew back open. She blinked with it, when all she saw were vacant faces.

“Is… that supposed to be a revelation of some kind?” Avari asked. “You’re pausing like you did something dramatic.”

Red lips dropped into a pout. “I had this set dramatically in mine mind… perhaps a description will aid your recollection? She guises herself as a brunette with twintails.”

“Oh!” Eldred clicked with his fingers. “Her.”

“Her.” Nyx’s voice was akin to a dropping icicle. “She set us up. She worked in your organisation!” The ghost lady’s anger immediately turned to Terua. The hunchbacked witch raised her spindly arms in a defensive gesture. “Will you claim ignorance?”

“No, I will claim pragmatism,” the CEO of the New Foundations responded, then pointed out the surrounding windows and at the distant Ever-Rain portal. “I told you, the Great Ones are positioning themselves in anticipation of the day that portal collapses. To let myself be infiltrated is the path of least resistance.”

“She speaks true,” Neora supported. “Such is the reason why I merely intercepted her attempt to directly confront you. Had it not been for me, she would have cornered you in the temple and made you choose between death and supplication.”

“Why?” Avari asked, immediately suspicious. “What was in that for you?”

“Mine meteoric rise was fraught with attempts of recruitment, many unkind. I sought to spare you undue pressure.”

“Then why let Otto attack us?” Nyx asked.

Neora’s eyes were both closed now. “As I have thusly stated, I will spare you of undue pressure. If you had been defeated by the craven, then it would have been the outcome of a fair fight.”

“She’s got a point,” Eldred said.

“The fuck she does,” Avari blurted out.

“Sputter profanities as you will.” Neora rose from her seat now, picking up a red-sheathed blade in the process. Wide hips swung as she sauntered towards the trio. “The trickster’s true name is Vexora Carnivella. I have made mine intent clear that she is to remain in her position. A known agent is a lesser evil. Besides witnessing what I have protected, I wished to bring you this assurance. Though I will not shield you from harm, I will ensure that the playing field in these districts remains balanced. I trust this promise irks you?”

“Tremendously,” Eldred responded darkly.

“Good. You will outgrow this care in due time.”

Neora walked past them. The back of her dress was a little more covering, but Eldred, all the same, was glued to the way her hips wiggled left to right with every barefooted stride. The Hurricane arrived at the elevator and pressed a button. She pressed it again. Then again. Then, she tried the other one. The door opened smoothly.

With a self-aware sigh, the living calamity stepped out of sight.