But then something new emerged above the mantaur’s head.
It was a marked-for-death symbol from a god.
System Message: Grull has entered the realm.
[ 66 ]
“Are you fucking kidding me?”I cried.
You are in the presence of a deity. The Scavenger’s Daughter has opened her eyes. She fills with power.
Temporary effect from Grull: All four-legged creatures in your presence, friend or enemy, are temporarily given 2× power to their most powerful attack.
“He’s behind us!” Donut shrieked.
Prepotente: Carl, this is most inconvenient!
“We don’t have time to deal with him right now,” I yelled. The end of the room loomed. “Donut...”
“I’m on it!”
I turned to see the giant bullheaded centaur creature with the enormous axe standing in the midst of the molten steel.
The god cackled with glee.
“What do we have here?” he called, his voice shaking the walls. “Carl, where are you? I’ve been waiting for your dumb ass to accidentally summon me.”
We exited the room, and the track abruptly ended. The next ceiling over was even higher, and I hadn’t prepared the spider legs. So instead, we just drove right off.
“Hang on!” I shouted. “We’re gonna . . .”
We flipped violently like a buoy. From behind, everyone cried out and fell heavily to the floor. Donut yowled, getting smushed between Corcunda and Dong.
Bubble Buddy activated. We continued our forward trajectory, now slowly falling through the air like a glider coming in for a landing.
This room was another big one, and it was filled with thousands of crates.
The cars that were ahead of us rocketed toward the distant exit, which appeared to be just a single door.
I kept the Limbo upgrade activated as we slowly dropped, occasionally hitting the rocket to cover more distance.
Warning: Race ends in 5 minutes.
“Hail! Grull has come for me,” Corcunda groaned as he helped Dong up. His voice remained the same as before, though his mannerisms were suddenly much more mantaur-like. “I thought I was free of the vile god when I split, but the moment I came back together, he sent me a message and told me I was to be punished for not being troo!”
“Not being what?” Donut asked.
The giant wall behind us exploded outward as the god crashed through. Molten metal started to spill into the room. There were cars and mounts everywhere falling and spinning, ignored by the god.
“I can feel you, Meat! You can’t hide from me. I made you a friend of my temple. Do you know what that means? It means I can find you even faster!”
“Oh, yes,” Grigori said from the floor. He’d banged his head and bled profusely from a scalp wound. “I should have asked if you worshipped a deity before you split. I apologize for my oversight.”
We were still in midair, gliding downward like a slow-moving paper airplane.
“He’s going to smite me,” Corcunda said. He turned to Dong, and he grabbed the old man’s hands with both sets of arms. The naked mantaur had a bright red jagged scar right down the middle of his face and chest. He wasn’t perfectly aligned. Little bulges appeared here and there along the seam.
The man shook his mulleted head. “Fellow warrior, I fear this was all for nothing!”