The Edge of Madness

The chaos god, Dungeon, was a worm, but only in the loosest sense. It was a long, endlessly long, worm shaped being that swallowed up whatever was in front of it. It was large enough to devour entire galaxies The inhabitants of these swallowed worlds rarely realize that they’re being digested. You could be in one too. It can take thousands of years to be fully digested; the world gets swallowed but the sun and the sky are still there and there’s still war and suffering, and yes, the little joys of friends and families and your favorite candies, movies, constellations; you wouldn’t think anything was wrong, but slowly, over hundreds of years things change.

The worm is a chaos god and stagnation is the enemy of chaos. Dungeon corrupts the worlds it swallows. The people and wildlife mutate and become more violent, the worlds begin to dissolve but not before the people. Sentient life bears the brunt of it’s corruption, their souls are degraded more and more with each passing generation until the compassionate and reasonable human is reduced to being less reasonable than a charging bull.

The way the corruption manifests can differ from planet to planet but it all ends the same. They are ultimately consumed. Consumed by Chaos.

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Val closed the door to the inn, stepping out onto the cobblestone street he gazed at the town before him. The ground and the buildings seemed to blend into each other; the buildings, upon closer inspection, protruded from the ground like pimples through skin. He used the word town only because of the fact that it was not as city like as what he was used to, and for the fact that there seemed to be a much larger cluster of buildings toward the center of the adjoining upper and lower halves of this “planet,” put simply the layout was similar to a clamshell. He was not a fan of it. The sun was hitting the point where the upper and lower strata met making the largest points glow gold in the early morning light. It was blinding. Can’t they put a dimmer switch or something on that thing. Val was as irritable as ever, complaining as easily as breathing. He wasn’t unhappy though, at least not as much as usual. He’d heard an intriguing bit of information yesterday from the brat. His name was Mervin or something… it didn’t matter, Val would complete his mission as quick and efficiently as possible and hightail out of here.

The man named Rory or something… it didn’t matter, who worked at the concierge desk had pointed him in the direction of “the end of the world” his exact instruction was, “Once you get outta here, keep walking straight until you run out of ground, if you fall to your death you’ve gone too far.” He had a grim sense of humor but it was also said entirely with a straight face, so it certainly wasn’t a joke to him.

The morning air was a bit sulfuric but breathable, much more breathable than it should have been this close to the Dungeon’s heart. And the people seemed human enough, though Val’s sense of these sorts of things wasn’t the most reliable. It was possible there was something going on here that he would have to sort out later but that was a later Val’s problem.

He began walking toward his destination. As he walked, he took in the town. It was still early and people were sparse, most were most likely still asleep. The less people who were aware of his presence the better. There were some worlds that wholly rejected outsiders, he’d been nearly stoned or lit on fire at least twice. He’d also heard of a superstition among hunters that the more you stood out in a particular world, the quicker the Dungeon would turn it’s sights on you. He didn’t particular care about whether that was the truth of things or not. Though he did think it might be worth testing out at some point, assuming he had an escape route scouted beforehand. Speaking of, the shimmer detector had yet to pinpoint an exit, which was mildly concerning, but once again that was a later Val’s problem.

A door opened on his right as he passed by and a familiar looking kid snuck out, keeping low to the ground. The headaches never cease. Despite the attempt to be stealthy, it really wasn’t. Even when he was deep in thought, Val always made sure to keep himself aware of his surroundings and a clumsy kid was never going pass his notice, even with the sun beaming off that damned building. If he was staying here for another day, he might’ve leveled that thing just to avoid going through this again.

The kid’s name was Ervin or something… it didn’t matter, the kid would soon see where he was going and back off. Even so, he hated the feeling of being followed, and so it was time for some evasive maneuvers.

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Mevick had a feeling the monster would be heading out early, so he also got up early. Normally, he wouldn’t be up till close to 8 but for the sake of his home, he would gladly get up however early he needed to, as long as it wasn’t before 5. That would have been excessive.

Mevick got dressed and carefully exited the house, making sure to keep as low to the ground as possible to avoid being spotted. He quickly and carefully crawled behind the bushes in front of peoples houses. He had a small enough frame that he wouldn’t be easily spotted as long as he kept himself low and close to the houses. Plus he chose beige shirt and pants for camouflage.

He followed the monster in black for a little ways but he was about to run into a problem: he’d reached the end of the row and the monster was still going straight. Mevick would have to sprint across the street to get to the next row of bushes. He knew that he’d be spotted, no question. He’d have to wait until the monster was almost out of sight then soundlessly rush to the other side. It was a risky plan but there was no other option.

Just when Mevick was about to go for it, a humming sound began to emanate from the thing’s body. The monster bent down just as Mevick was. Was he about to break into a sprint as well? Had he been spotted, that didn’t seem likely, he’d been so careful after all. The sound got louder and louder and then BANG. A spark and then a plume of fire blasted out from the monster’s feet catapulting him into the air. He landed about a hundred feet away and then blasted off again. What the heck was that! How can he fly? When had Mevick been spotted?!? That creature was more powerful than he had initially thought, there was no way he’d catch up at this point.

Mevick stood up. Defeated. He was about to turn back home when someone punch the window he was standing next to, startling him. “Get out of my flower bed, Mevick!” Old lady Vanich pounded at her window with her walking stick. “I’m going, I’m going!” It was back to the drawing board.

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Three boosts remaining. Val checked the fuel on his rocket boots. A passive observer may have thought that was a waste, but it made Val feel better, and hopefully the display had discouraged Malik from tailing him. He was now only about a block from where the “edge of the world” was, so it was also a two birds with two rocket boots sort of thing.

The cobblestone had taken on a more sickly yellow hue closer to the put and the air quality had dropped sharply to the point where Val had to activate the air filter he’d installed in his nose. This wasn’t a place for humans, luckily Val didn’t consider himself to be human. He was a monster, just as the boy had said.

He finally reached the edge. Below him, poisonous yellow plumes hovered about here and there, but otherwise there was nothing. He zoomed in to see what there was to see. He noticed a slightly glow flare up from somewhere in the depths but was quickly snuffed out by the thick darkness the permeated every inch of the chasm below.

It was time to work. He was ready to get this over with. He throws a silver tube ahead of him then jumps in as if he were diving into a pool. Val chuckled. He saw the darkness as if it were the shadows of an empty box, and at the bottom… who knew what he’d find.