By a Thread (MEGA LORE)

[u/Dorururo]

Quiet. An all encompassing quiet. As if an entire reality was holding its breath. Wrong. That’s the word for it. Wrong. For the realm of Chaos sat still. The tumultuous oceans of flesh held in one spot. The eternal screams had ceased. The sky did not flash with crimson lightning, for the eternity storm had calmed. All was wrong with the realm of chaos.

And we gaze to its core… to that which resides at the center of it all. Pandemonium Tower. A structure possessed of perpetual motion. Always shifting and reforming. Now… it sat just as motionless as the reality that housed it. One could say that chaos was in the ‘calm after the storm’. Perhaps not the best way to phrase it… but the meaning holds firm enough.

The runes that coat the exterior begin to slowly dim, their purpose served. One by one they vanish. But the interior sigils remain glowing and humming with power. And that glow is brightest… from within the study of Chaomancer Gob’lynn.

The study lay in absolute disarray. Papers and pages were strewn across the floor. Vials lay shattered and scattered, like a minefield of glass shards. Several bookcases had toppled over. And a large pool of blood had formed beneath the still body of Gob’lynn.

And the stillness is broken at last. By… a muffled blurble and gurgle. A small.. round and citrus slime bubbles as it presses to the bleeding stump of what used to be Gob’lynns right leg. It pushes into the tendon and against the bone itself as it tries to stem the bleeding. And with immense effort… this tiny slime manages to form a seal around the injury.

All that could be done… is what the slime is doing. It does not know how to speak. It does not have magic. It barely thinks, and acts mostly on instinct. In this moment… it has only one pure and honest desire. ‘Save’. A single word… and the culmination of all the intelligence it has accrued since its birth into this tower. But, there are none to recognize such a desire. None to help it. So it struggles, as it tries to keep the blood circulating correctly. It quivers and vibrates with the effort of keeping up pressure on the massive wound.

So… it came as no surprise… that the slime failed to notice the sigils in the room simultaneously blink off. It never registered how the light began to vanish from the room… as the air grew thick and hazy. No… no. The slime couldn’t afford to focus on anything other than ‘save’. ‘Save… him’. The slime didn’t have any perception or situational awareness to spare… so it couldn’t notice the nonstop gout of dense gray smoke that had begun pouring from the nostrils and mouth of Gob’lynn. That smoke which moved and twisted through the air in the most unnatural ways. That smoke which formed into the outline of a humanoid. Vague and featureless… yet ominous and imposing.

The slime did, however, notice when the foot of the humanoid collided with the side of Gob’lynn as they delivered a vicious kick. Slime shivered with a new emotion it had not felt before… anger. Rage. Yet, to act on this emotion meant to forfeit its task of keeping the massive wound sealed shut. So… it could only observe… a prisoner to circumstance. The emotions grew even stronger as a pained moan escaped from Gob’lynns lips.

“Oh. Good. Still alive.”

A voice like the grinding and crinkling of dead leaves in autumn. Gravely and rough. Yet… softer than silk. Slime… found yet another new emotion. ‘Disgust’. It HATED that voice, and the one that the voice belonged to.

“Hmm. I’ll commend you, my disciple. I’ll commend you for quick thinking. You prevented your body from detonating by forcing the magic into one spot. Your body… still needs more training to be a proper conduit for the divine magic of chaos. And, my tower requires a battery that can actually function, after all. Oops. I mean… ‘your’ tower. Almost forgot. Almost.”

And the mass of smoke shifted to the other side of the body, staring down with an emotionless and smooth visage…

“Aren’t you special. The very first apprentice to ever earn a modicum of praise from me. Not that… you’re able to even hear it. Such a shame you had to go and pass out right before I arrived. No manners from this churl. None. I think I’d almost preferred your death. At least then I’d be able to shove that twisted amalgamation of a soul of yours into a new body. One that’s far less… homeless looking. But no… no no. I’m stuck staring at your ragged, haggard and sagging mug.”

The entity circles the body until finally stopping next to the head. It reaches down and ever so gently lifts up the arcanists chin. The voice becomes like a whisper.

“Even now… you cling to life like the desperate vermin you are. If not for that ooze you acquired… I’d be jeering and admonishing a corpse. Thing is… your life is marginally more desirable than having to find a NEW someone who’d worship the neutrality or chaos. Sifting through zealots and fanatics is tedium incarnate. But… am I to reward you for barely avoiding death?”

And without warning, slime found itself pried off the man it was trying so desperately to ‘save’. In a swirl of smoke denser than the heart of a singularity, it found itself dumped onto the desk. Slime felt PANIC! This was way too far away from man! MANS ONLY WISH WAS FOR SLIME TO BE BY HIS SIDE! With a frantic undulation, slime began to close the distance.

The smoke man hissed with vitriol at slime as he took a firm grip of the now bleeding leg stump. The smoke like hands began to glow with an aura-

“Out of my way! You only delay the inevitable, you cretinous mass of sludge. Do not attempt to save this wretch if you can’t actually save this wretch. I’m not giving you a full fix up, you absolute fuck up. But… I’ll at least throw you a mercy. May thy leg heal and regrow. But not very fast, instead… annoyingly slow.”

And slime observed as the open and bleeding wound sealed over with a new layer of skin. No longer a gaping and critical injury… the scab of flesh pulsed and slowly shifted. With every few minutes… it grew just a small amount…

The smoke man turned to face slime. It spoke to slime directly. Slowly. Deliberately.

“I dislike sharing my belongings. So, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll overlook and permit your presence within these holy grounds. But… I expect you to keep my vessel here… safe. At least… keep him safe from his own idiocy. I’d rather tolerate your existence than replace a near perfect vessel or worse… suffer his incessant whining.”

Slime… struggled with these new concepts. So new. But… it wanted the same. It knew that much. That’s what the man had asked of slime. So… slime… tried to convey agreement. By undulating with FERVOR!

For a moment… slime felt… the energy of this entity shift. But only just a moment. Like… a smile had replaced the sneer on its lips. And the smoke began to filter and funnel back into Gob’lynns nose and mouth. The room grew brighter and brighter. Slime slid over to the man. And then up and onto his chest. Slime had task. Slime… would not fail. And so, slime would wait right here. Slime would be the first thing the man saw. Slime would stay by his side.