“Believe me, kid,” Pontiff was saying. “I would take it all back if I could. But I can’t, so all I can do is make amends moving forward.”
“I don’t even care anymore,” the young Crocodilian said. “Everyone dies in this place.”
“Dong and Corcunda are dead, yes. But the others live.”
Pontiff finally noticed me watching. He abruptly stopped talking. “Carl,” he said, nodding.
I regarded the mercenary. “We’ll be back,” I finally said, leaving them alone.
Donut remained on my shoulder, her head pressed firmly against mine as we walked outside.
“His whole family is dead or missing,” Donut finally said. “I can’t even begin to imagine how awful that must be.”
“I know.”
We continued in silence for a few moments, heading toward the archway into Hungry Eyes Village.
“Carl, is this truly the only way?” she asked softly.
“I think so,” I said, reaching up to pat her. “We’re all dying, Donut. It has to stop. All of these floors are taking away our ability to fight back. I can’t do it anymore. Aren’t you tired of it?”
“Of course I’m tired, but I am alive, and I’m with you.”
“This is what we need to do to survive. WhatIneed to do. The Emberus quest to kill Hellik is due.”
“But Mordecai says even if we do succeed, it might backfire. He said it’s just like that one crawler from a long time ago. What was his name?”
“Drakea.”
“Yeah, that guy. He had this whole setup to do the same thing as you, and the Nagas cheated to make it backfire. Nothing changed, and he died. It was all for nothing.”
“That might happen, yes. But this time the showrunners aren’t in control anymore. As crazy as the AI is, he’s still following the rules.”
“You could just worship the goddess. She’s promised to fix it if you do.”
I didn’t answer.
Eris didn’t want me to “worship” her. She wanted true devotion. That path was a trap.
But she did have the right idea.
Jasha and Radoslav remained in their usual spot in front of their garage. They did not wave, and I did not wave back. We all knew what had to happen next.
I felt a chill, looking at them. I had been afraid that the dungeon wouldn’t allow me to use myOozy Formspell in the cul-de-sac, but it had let me. I almost wished it hadn’t.
Fuck everything about this place.
“And we still need to get through this floor first,” I added.
We were interrupted by messages.
Florin: We decided to let the animal forms go, as Mordecai believes it’ll be fine. I ain’t going nowhere, but Bautista asked Louis and Britney if they would consent to him leaving, and they said yes. So is Tran with his mechanical spider legs. Zhang is going, too. Archie is going. All the guys from the 101st who wanted to go and who qualify are going as long as it’s the whole crew. We’re doing our best to keep from screwing people who are staying.
I gave a quick glance at Osvaldo’s garage with the number “2.” It remained closed. He couldn’t go to the Cabaret because he worshipped a god. Hopefully he would take a deal at the end of this next race so we wouldn’t have to face him, but he hadn’t let his intentions be known despite me sending him several messages.
One race at a time.
As for Dwight and team Free Love, I wasn’t sure how we were going to deal with that. With Lucienne dead, Dwight couldn’t drive for heat six, and I had no idea if the idiot unicorn had the wherewithal to hire a mercenary. This one might be predetermined before we even started. If Dwightdidn’thire a mercenary, they’d let him drive to the starting line, but he wouldn’t be allowed to drive after that. That was the best solution, but it also meant we’d have to face team Free Love and Osvaldo for the final race.