I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.
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The Flood
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...Wh... What's going on...? I feel cold... wet... Something's holding me... There's a pressure in my chest... it's coming up...
I feel water spray from my mouth as I cough. My lungs burn as I gasp for breath. I can't tell which direction is up, the world is spinning around me.
"There you are," a horrible deep voice says. "I couldn't have you drown just quite yet."
I struggle to focus my eyes. Everything's fuzzy. In front of me is a red and black blur. That red blur, it's the thing that's speaking.
The red blur gets larger in my vision. "Now, I don't want to hear a word from you." I feel something wrap around my mouth.
That red blur is Phelphor. I'm going to wring his fat neck! I try to lift my hands at him, but they won't move.
The red blur approaches again, and I feel something press against my forehead. There's a spark of light and- and I can see clearly. There's Phelphor, standing in front of me. Actually, standing over me, one foot on either side of my chest.
Phelphor straightens up and grins. "Welcome back, Osiris. I have something you should see. Tell me, what is that above you?"
The M'arrillian steps aside. I see, hanging above me, what looks like a giant mirror.
Phelphor laughs. "What can you see?"
I see me, still in my black armor, minus the helmet. There's a cloth tied around my mouth. My arms are spread out and chained to the stone slab I'm lying on, as are my legs. My head is immobilized by some kind of vice.
"Look past that," Phelphor commands. "What do you see below you?"
Past the stone slab is a small circular floor, and past that floor, what looks like a mile down is... a flood. Water is pouring out of the open Doors, black murky water. Somewhere down there the first forces of the M'arrillians are beginning their invasion. I catch a brief glimpse of a mass of tentacles escaping the Doors before disappearing under the water.
I... I failed...
Phelphor lets out a booming laugh. "My gratitude for your assistance in the freeing of my brethren, Osiris. Now, would you so kindly assist me as I give my thanks to the Cothica atop this broken pillar?"
If I could move I'd strangle you, toad.
I hear a scrap of metal, and I can see in the mirror Phelphor moving around to my head. In his hands is my helmet. "Thank you for your cooperation. The Cothica should enjoy the taste of your blood."
The taste of my-?
Oh. This is... I'm lying on an altar. A sacrificial altar.
I'm blinded for a moment while Phelphor slides my helmet onto my head, and then I can see. I'm struck with claustrophobia, my heart pounds and my skin burns with heat. Phelphor mutters, "And now the warrior, the offering, lies ready for the Great God Cothica."
I see Phelphor remove the scant armor he has and set them aside, the vambraces on his arms, the greaves on his legs, and the pauldron covering his left shoulder. Phelphor's voice begins to sound like a chant as he undresses. "Cover not your body while in the presence of God Cothica, M'arrillian. Bare all and show you hold no secrets from him..." I hear the click of his belt, and his reflection throws aside his kilt.
Great, I'm going to be sacrificed by a naked M'arrillian. What a wonderful way for my fourteenth time to end-
It's ending... My breath catches in my throat. Everything I've done, it's all going to go away... The next time I see her, Isis won't know who I am. Neither, Theb-sarr, nor Iflar. I'll once again be a stranger to Maliph and Malvadine, to Sett and to Shasta.
Sett, he'll be once again drinking away his sorrows, his happy life with Ashley erased from existence. Shasta will be once again have to endure seeing his brother-in-law, drunken and deranged, confusing him for his dead wife and trying to act on his desires.
Hera, poor Hera... She may not even have a chance to exist next time. She was born after the Human tribe's arrival in Perim, and the winds of probability are unlikely to create her ever again.
Everything that's happened, everything I've accomplished, is about to die.
A tugging at the side of my chest shakes me from my thoughts. In the mirror I see Phelphor undoing the straps that hold my breastplate to my body. A sharp tug, and it loosens. Phelphor peels away the armor and lets it clatter to the ground.
"Present the offering," Phelphor chants. "Whet the God's appetite." I feel his hand touch my chest and stroke down. The touch makes my stomach recoil. The hand strokes down past my navel, then strokes up, across the muscle of my stomach, my chest, then comes to rest on my throat.
I want to thrash, to scream, but I'm paralyzed. All I can do is watch.
Phelphor stands again, and I see a wicked grin on his face. "Prepare the tool for the sacrifice," he practically sings, and water starts to flow from his hands. It shapes itself into a thick curved knife and freezes into a cloudy blade of ice.
Phelphor reaches down and strokes the tip of the knife across my neck. He laughs, and in a normal tone of voice, he asks, "Do you know what I'm going to do? How I will offer your heart to Cothica?"
You'll stick the blade in my stomach and slice it down. Then you'll reach inside, maneuver your hand to my rib cage, then shove it in until your hand pierces my diaphragm. Your hand will penetrate my chest cavity, pushing aside my lungs, and wrap itself around my heart. You will pull, and the vessels holding my heart in place will tear and break. You'll extract my heart and raise it up, still beating, while I watch as I die. Then you'll unchain me from the altar and throw my body from this pillar.
Phelphor's grin flickers for a moment. "You already know? How?"
I'll never tell.
Phelphor's savage smile returns. "No matter, I'll figure it out when I search your mind..." The frozen blade he holds trails down to my chest. "I'll dissect your mind, no, vivisect it, and learn how to control other minds like yours..."
I try to force myself not to think. No, I don't want to die. I'm going to lose so much here. Still, come my fifteenth time, on my sixteenth, or even later, I will find a way to kill Phelphor.
Phelphor's knife slowly traces down my sternum, until it hovers around the place were bone ends and muscle begins. "I'm going to enjoy carving you open," Phelphor whispers. "The feeling I get when I feed God, it surpasses any pleasure of the flesh." As if to illustrate his point, he straightens up and shows his naked and aroused body to me.
If I had anything in my stomach, I would have vomited at the sight. Phelphor doesn't look like he's about to kill someone, he looks like he's ready to mate. A horrifying image flits through my mind, an image of the red M'arrillian copulating with my corpse.
"Now there's an idea," Phelphor laughs. He raises the knife. "I may have to try it out..."
...Please, let me die quickly...
Phelphor begins to chant again. "Cothica! Here is the heart of your foe! I offer it in gratitude of my triumph!"
The knife comes down. A sharp pain flares in my stomach as the knife drags down. Piercing pushing, the feeling of a foreign object in my stomach. My body spasms as the M'arrillian's hand punctures the muscles of my diaphragm, and then there's the bizarre feeling across my chest as the hand finds my heart. Phelphor pulls-
M-my chest is empty... hollow... i-it's missing... The world is starting to blur together... My vision is clear, though, and I see Phelphor stand and raise a- raise my heart into the air...
Everything feels so heavy... my mind is fluttering, buzzing... but still I see Phelphor... holding my heart in one hand and his other hand wrapping around his... his... oh God... he's pleasuring himself... He's getting off on watching me die...
Phelphor laughs loudly. "Now show me your mind, Osiris! Show me your mind as it dies!"
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A field of crystal towers. Rain made of diamonds. Trees of gems and rivers of quartz.
Wh-what is all this?
{WeLCoMe To YouR MiND, oSiRiS.}
Phelphor! What did you do to me?!
{you aLReaDy KNoW, uNLeSS you ReFeR To WHaT iS NoW HaPPeNiNG. iN THaT CaSe, i KNoW NoT. you SHouLD NoT Be aBLe To See WHaT i aM SeeiNG.}
You won't find anything you can use here, Phelphor!
{SiLeNCe.}
A spectral red hand touches one of the towers. A song plays throughout the emptiness of the area. It's a song, one that my mother sang to me many times when I was young. The spectral red hand touches another tower, and my young voice sounds singing a nonsense song.
This is what my mind looks like to Phelphor... Strange, it doesn't look fragile like he said-
The spectral hand punches the tower, and suddenly everything rearranges. The towers fracture and become many-pointed stars. The rain collects together and forms an enormous crystal flower. The rivers and the trees start to flare like a wildfire.
The red spectral hand touches one of the petals of the crystal bloom, and the empty air seems to glow. A feeling enters my consciousness. Sadness, mixed with anger. Another petal is touched, and suddenly I feel like leaping for joy.
The spectral hand opens, then closes around the flower. The crystals all shatter, then rearrange, this time into a grid of squares, with the remaining scraps of crystal orbiting around each other high overhead. The spectral hand touches one square, and the image of a woman rises from the square. I know her, she works the same shift as me. Another square is touched, and an image of my younger brother rises from it.
The hand balls into a fist and smashes the grid. Crystals begin to fly around as if caught in a tornado, then they slowly collect into an enormous round ball.
{WHaT?}
Did... Did Phelphor just get confused? What's this ball, then?
The hand approaches the ball, and the hand begins to flicker as it nears the crystal surface. {WHaT iS THiS? My BoDy TreMBLeS aS i NeaR iT, aS iF iT WaS My MiND i WaS aBouT To TouCH.}
...No, it can't be... I thought that... I thought that this would stay hidden! Wh-what will happen when Phelphor sees what it is?!
The spectral hand touches the sphere-
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My chest burns with fury. My hands clench on the arms of my throne. I cannot believe the insolence, the arrogance, the pride of the creature before me.
"You sent him to Jade Pillar alone!" I bellow. The air crackles with electricity with my voice.
Mudeenu bows at my feet. "I'm sorry, Father!" he pleads. "I-I just assumed-"
"You were careless, Mudeenu!" I roar. "Has Osiris ever done something so rash without good reason?!"
"King Theb-sarr," Sobtjek calls out, grabbing my arm. "Now is not the time for rage. We need to learn how we can reach Prince Osiris again."
I growl at my son Mudeenu before turning away. "What mugics do we have available to us, Sobtjek?"
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The red hand recoils. {WHaT? BuT How?!} It touches another part of the sphere.
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"Pull!" I shout, and the workers do so, pulling the rope and hoisting the large stone.
Seven solans of work, and we're still not done repairing the outer walls of Kiru City. At least we are still protected from attack via the inner sets of walls.
"Austin!" one of the creatures shouts. "We're running low on mortar!"
I point my silver cane at a group of Humans and Overworlders. "Go check on the new batch, quickly!"
They scramble, and I set the cane down. I see a speck of dust land on my sleeve, and I brush it off with my hand.
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{THiS iS Not PoSSiBLe!} The hand touches another place.
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"Ha ha ha! Daddy! Stop it!"
I run around the table, and Daddy chases me with his hands outstretched. "Here comes the tickle monster, Hera!" Daddy laughs.
I giggle and hide under the table. Daddy stops and looks around. "Oh Hera? Where did you go?"
I hold my hands to my mouth and hold back my laughs. Of course Daddy knows where I am, but it's so funny!
Daddy ducks down. "There you are!"
I squeal and scramble away, but Daddy catches me an lifts me up. I laugh as he pokes my tummy.
"Michael! Hera!" That's Mommy's voice!
Daddy holds me to his chest and calls out, "Yes Isis?"
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{NO! NO! NO!} The hand hovers over the sphere, as if searching for something, then presses down.
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{NO! NO! NO!} I cry out as I retrieve the projection of my hand. How can there be people inside Osiris's mind?
I-if I'm right... If my prediction is right... then...
Am I in here? Where am I here? I hover my hand over the surface, searching. There's a place that feels... horrible to me... I touch it.
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{GYAAAAAHHH!}
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"Fleshshaper's Shanty!" Phelphor's voice cries out. A mugic rises from his hand, and a black ghost rises from his body. Seven notes play, and a black smoke erupts from the mugic. "Make this body whole!"
Fleshshaper's... Shanty... I don't... recognize... that...
AAAHHH! My chest! I can see my chest rip itself open in the mirror above me!
My ribs fly open like a pair of jaws, and my heart leaps from Phelphor's hand to its rightful place in my body. The veins and arteries knit back onto my heart, and then my ribs close. My skin starts to fuse together, and as suddenly as the shocking display began, it ends. There's not even a trace of the damage that had been there previously.
Phelphor is pointing at my, his body trembling. "You! H-how?! If you- How?!"
...He's figured it out... Oh my God, what's going to happen?
"But I have free will! I think, I feel! If all of this is true, then why am I in your head?!"
I squeeze my eyes shut so I don't have to see the look of horror on Phelphor's face.
Phelphor's voice is a screech. "You knew! You knew all this time! You knew that all of this, the entirety of Perim, you knew that all of this was nothing but... nothing but...!"
Don't say it, Phelphor!
Phelphor grabs my shoulders and shakes. "You're the only real thing here! How could reality be nothing but your dream?!"
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Act III: Invader is complete!
Act IV: Lucidity is coming!
Up next: The Nature of My Dreams
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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.
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