The Book of Tears | ARMAGHIDDON

oops I didn’t connect them

though now I know who “he” is.

there is a second zalgo in the latest chapter to help you

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yes. I have decoded it

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Man this AI guy is very entertaining, I sure do hope he doesn’t Randomly generate stories about Ghid’s world domination.

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Ch 12

Chapter 13

It took a fair amount of time to realize exactly where I was. It was inside the police station, in a room where they apparently stored odds and ends. There was a rough metal table piled with clutter, and boxes of folders and stuff scattered about somewhat orderly, each with a different label. I noticed a somewhat larger box to my side which read ‘hooligan outsiders’. It was tipped over, and appeared as though I had fallen out of it.

A thought occurred, and looking about I saw a box labeled ‘suggestion chip prototypes.’ Seizing the edge of it, I dumped the contents all over the floor of the room, spreading the pile out with my hands until my eyes landed on a spherical silver device with a round cutout portion housing a lens. Holding this object in one hand, I turned my attention towards the box I had spilled from, and pulled out a leather bandolier - Diero’s.

Three of the bullets in the bandolier were marked, and one of these I pulled out and bent the casing of with my shoe. A greenish gas immediately seeped out from it , and I took extra care to direct it into the sphere I was holding lest it decide to enter some portion of my wooden frame.

Where are we?” A voice spoke from the sphere, the camera inside it gaining a green glow in the middle of the lens. “It’s so dark here. Cold, empty. Being consciously aware of it is, it’s tangible. It is a tasted pain, not one felt.

I sighed bitterly, trying not to empathize with the fiend. “When you have nothing else, you get used to it.” My tiny figure towered over the little ball nestled in my hands. “And you, Eilrach, have very little.”

I understand all that.” The monster spoke in strange tones - were those undercurrents of remorse reverberating from his words? “I have been doing a lot of thinking in those bullets - inhabiting multiple places lets me speak with myself, only learned that in recent times. I have no place, no kingdom any more. By now my dominion has been forgotten in history, so far in the past that no mortal left alive contains the slightest memory of its legend.

“Except me.”

Yes,” The orb continued. “All except you. I doubt I will ever understand how you could be split so, and I meet you in sequence as I have. Did you… Wish to learn the story?

“If you boot me out, you’ll likely never get out of this room.” I glared. “Don’t forget it.”

I have moved beyond that now.” Eilrach replied. “A purpose is all I desire now, and one I shall find, perhaps through your enlightenment.” The green smoke from the sphere snaked up through the air into my eye sockets, and the whole world went dark.


Bold, were the rider! And bold, were his steed! Marching on through the mire, to the realm of the Lost!

The horse splashed the muddy water about on either side as it made top speed through the grime and sludge, bearing forth its host across this murky mire. When dry ground once more was reached, the rider dismounted from his equine escort and cast his eyes about, clothed in shining silver armor which remained spotless in spite of the journey.

He, crowned in majesty, was the King, the regal one, Wilhelmus the Lesser!

Aside him now stood, his legs coated up to the knees in grime, his height at four meters, his face yet hid behind a sheet of steel, the King’s keeper, Lord of the twisted forest, Ghidrius the Endless - named for his inability to be slain, as his armor was full of holes through the chest, a testament both to the poor quality of the suit as well as his continued survival. His eyes cast about suspiciously, with only his left eye being visible through the armor - that is, if you did not ascertain the two hidden behind decorative slots in the side, the pair of peepers affixed to the right side of his head, one above the other, the bleached bone-while skin hidden from the beholder.

Or perhaps the sight of the massive figure carrying what appeared to be a wardrobe on his back simply distracted from it.

“Your majesty, forgive me for yet again speaking out of line.” The King’s guardian spoke, not pausing to allow time for his majesty to actually permit him to speak thus. “Your people are on the verge of rebellion due to your fascination in the elimination of this monarch of the unliving, and their threats have ascended from secession to national revolt.”

“Summarize.” Wilhelmus the Lesser answered.

“You cannot abandon your people any longer.” Ghidrius coldly replied. “I can embark on this travesty in your stead. If this causeless quest is not ended soon, and you returned to your position and throne, your nation may-”

“My nation can eat worms and die.” Wilhelmus retorted, turning towards his emissary with a threatening air. “Ghidrius, I am not a fool of any caliber. The threat this monster, this Eilrach poses to not only my kingdom, but the entire world is not over-exaggerated in any capacity. I have spent the last six years locating the formidable fortress of this arch fiend, and my success here in securing his shattered skull and undoing the curse across our land with the ancient art passed down from my forefathers is of a greater importance than the comforts of a few measly peasant tramps licking the dirt off my garden walk as a sign of blind reverence.”

“Not blind, your majesty.” The sinister voice of Ghidrius calmly slithered out of his mouth, the giant bending down to address his master more efficiently. “With their humbled position, they see and hear everything from inside the palace grounds.”

“Then those same which complain are the first to know of the severity of this mission.” Wilhelmus curtly replied. “And so it must be seen to. The journey is almost over, and Ghidrius: My decision is final. I will not tolerate insubordination or dissent. Remember that.”

The giant said nothing else, returning to his fullest height with an air of contempt. The pair journeyed onward, off into the thick of the woods, the air around them growing green and sickly as I ripped my consciousness from the episode with a rattling snarl.

“Summarize.” I hissed.

But the journey-

“My time is precious.” I deadpanned. “Do not make me regret my freeing you.”

Wordlessly the green fog swirled back into my eyes, although this time the scene before me was far more realistic. I could feel the cold wetness of the bricks, coated with moss and muck, as the clash of steel sprayed sparks in every direction. The giant was here, clashing mightily with a foe slightly shorter but far fiercer than himself. While the keeper of the King swung in great, terrible movements, his fiendish foe spun with a flurry of ornamental robes and glowing golden touches, smashing his hefty weapons into the ancient blade of the colossus with enough force to stagger him over and over again.

I MUST ADMIT,” The shorter foe gloated, now floating above his opponent with a wicked grin in his skeletal features. “I KNEW THE KING WAS A COWARD, BUT THAT HE WOULD FALTER AND FAIL AT THE MOMENT OF GLORY IS BEYOND AMUSEMENT!

“Sire, this oaf begins to tire me.” Ghidrius replied, his collected voice masking how weary he was from the battle. “I am unsure if it his combat or his rhetoric which is the culprit, but my mind aches with his droning palaver all the same.”

YOU SO CONDEMN THE WORDS OF EILRACH?!” The malignant monster growled, tossing aside his heavy axe and unveiling two wicked swords which hissed through the air as he drew them. “YOU ARE DEAD WHERE YOU STAND!!” The skeletal entity barreled through the air and skewered Ghidrius on the spot, grinning in satisfaction before Ghidrius slammed himself into the wall.

“Sire, please do not consider me obstinate,” Ghidrius sighed as Eilrach was forced to abandon his two blades or be crushed under the weight of his foe. “but I would not bank on my ability to occupy the attention of this fiend for too much longer.”

Seeing Ghidrius’ goal was not to defeat but simply preoccupy him, Eilrach roared into a fury, pummeling the colossus until he collapsed from the sheer number of lightning blows. “I WILL NOT BE FOUGHT IN UNFAIR COMBAT! YOU WILL NOT PLAY GAMES WITH ME.” Turning his glowing eyes on the unprotected King, he hissed “AND YOU. BRING ME YOUR BEST, OR I WILL CHOP YOU UP AND LEAVE YOU IN THE SUN TO ROT!!

“And my best you shall receive.” Wilhelmus replied, the sword in his hands glowing with the fury of the sun. “The ritual of my forefathers is complete. Now, feel the sting of a thousand years of steel!”

The heavy blows from Eilrach’s weapons barely moved the blade in the hands of the King. With a roar he left through the air, plunging the weapon into the chest of Eilrach, as the corrupting green fumes around the entire land rushed back towards him and reentered his being. The eyes of the skeletal fiend went dark, and all was quiet.

“The seal.” Wilhelmus breathed, his heart slowing back down from the exertion. “It will be completed only behind the closing of the chamber. Ghidrius, the box.”

The lumbering figure hauled over the wardrobe he had carried on his back to where the figure lay. As Wilhelmus held it open, the giant laid the fearsome foe down inside, immobilized. The King retrieved the sword, and the box was closed.

“‘And the seal will break only when he who sealed it tastes the bitter cup of death.’ Well, now all that’s left is to dispose of this thing where he shall never escape again.” Wilhelmus returned his blade to its sheath and looked about the empty lair. “Do you think the bottom of the sea would be a fine place? Or would the fiend escape from even there?”

“It would be sufficient to crush him entirely, my lord.” Ghidrius said. “But I think of a place even better. There is a black pit in the far north which runs to the center of the world, so they say. Such a fathom could never be ascended by mortal or immortal. I shall take him there and dump him in, where he shall never climb back out.”

“No, I must go along as well.” Wilhelmus sighed, straightening his armor. “It will not bode well if the King returns home and the deed is not complete, nor if the King does not have the honor of destroying the fiend himself. It would sit ill with the people that I was not mighty in this regard, but the location sounds sufficient for our cause, and I will-”

The next second, the golden blade had been drawn from its sheath, and stabbed through the middle of the fine king. His breath choked as the large and sinister head of Ghidrius slowly crept over his shoulder. “I tried, your majesty. But you just couldn’t give up your precious quest and your superficial glory.”

Ghidrius?” The reply was feeble and confused. "W-why?

“There was never a pit to the north.” The figure’s fingers slowly crept around Wilhelmus’ jaw with an unnerving clicking. “Believe me, your majesty, I tried every other option. Now be a dear and stay alive for a few moments longer.”

The sword was thrust in between two bricks in the wall, and Ghidrius, now with hands free, pulled a silver sliver from his armor and raised it in the air. “Taiepa Rukah!” He cried, and slammed the sliver into the ground, causing a crack through the air which eventually splintered open a hole in the air itself.

Wilhemus could barely crane his head around to see, but just enough to witness Ghidrius speaking to someone on the other side of the newly-formed hole. “I have your prize. But hurry, Volume, for the seal can last no longer.”

Eilrach’s memory of this event faded from view as I staggered back, running into the wall and shaking my head vigorously. The Eilrach smoke had dissipated entirely, and I cracked open a new bullet to fill his robotic host. We both said nothing for a while, and after several attempts to speak I forced out a question.

“Do you regret?”

The orb didn’t answer. I picked it up, and the door flew open with enough violence to knock me back just by the motion. The figure above me looked around, and his green eyes lighted on my tiny figure.

“Ah, I thought you were a robot or something.” The figure shrugged, scratching his head. “Well, come on. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but Volume has spoken for the first time in eight months - and he wants to see you.”

Ch 14

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:eye::eye:

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ah cool a new chapter.

also I was a silver sliver.

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i read that one and kind of understood the rest
now i beg of @ghid to:

the rest of the book

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gosh I want to keep writing

but I miss my theoriser :droplet::eye: :eye:

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make a song for the book and then he’ll comment on it

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you expect ghid to sing

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maybe

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We absolutely expect you to sing.

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ghid = tolkien confirmed?!?

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I can’t wait for Traykar to show up, say it’s Traykar time, and then Traykar all over them

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I have a theory that we can get the same results from the other side of @Ghid ’s mind.

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Haha this didn’t age well lol

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Well anyways I’m back. Hopefully someone here still remembers me

So, I kinda don’t want to be a hypocrite, so I’ve read the thing and I’m going to review it, I guess…

Though, I’m not going to dump the whole thing in one part, because that’s no fun. I’ll split it into parts and will cover four to five chapters of the story in each of them… I just don’t wanna sit here and type my nonsensical ramblings for hours straight like the good old days.

Alright, here’s my thoughts on chapters 1-4 of the Book of… I honestly forgot what it was… oh, right, Tears

So, I like that we’re starting off the book with the deep-ish hilariously over-the-top musings. It’s been a consistent thing since BoR and it’s nice to see the tradition continue. Although, I think this time the beginning is not the most memorable one, nothing will top the reference to the Shrek song in the beginning of BoR for me.

It’s also surprising that this story is the first one in the series that picks up right after the events that occurred in the ending of the previous book and features the characters that we are already familiar with (I’m talking about Cat Boy aka the grand master of evil, Clint Eastwood corpse and an Animal Crossing character in a purple hoodie). It certainly makes the story much easier to comprehend from the get go.

I would complain about the fact that it takes away the fun of trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who the hell all those people are (there was a plenty of that in the beginning of the other three books) if you didn’t introduce the second plot in chapter two. At this point I have no idea who Tomorrow is and what role they are going to play in the story and it certainly would be fun to theorise about that, but I fear that it’s a bit too late to do such a thing at this point.

Pain. Physical pain.

Relatable

Relatable

Also relatable

I really enjoyed this whole fight in the car. I can definitely see that you are improving at this. In your previous books it was sometimes quite hard to understand what exactly was going on in scenes like this, but here I can clearly envision where everyone is and what they are doing. Nice.

I was about to comment on how inconsistent Eilrach’s ability to control things was (he is able to control dead bodies with no blood circulation, air flow and brain impulses, but can’t make a car move without the fuel), but you deprived me of such an opportunity by getting rid of the inconsistency.
I’m very offended.

Do speedometers do that?

Started what? Morbing, I assume…

And there’s one thing that still confuses me a lot. Tott’s character. Sometimes he is this evil narcissistic sociopath who wants to take over the world and sometimes he genuinely cares about others and wants to save them. It’s not really a complaint, it’s just something I find particularly interesting. Hopefully this will be developed more in future chapters.

That caught me off guard. I genuinely forgot how violent these are at times.

Relatable.

I must say, that must have been an extraordinarily tall cliff, since they spent so much time falling from it.

Well, I think I’m out of things to say for now. Future chapters have a lot going on, so destroying them with flawless critique should be fun…

@Ghid look it’s done! It sure feels nice to be back

It’s time to sleep now

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I miss the good old days :pensive:

there are many things I could say in response to this which emphasize how well this sentence encapsulates the books, the boards, and all of society, but I’ll leave it open to very vague interpretation instead.

doggone it notahffan, if you would just catch up I wouldn’t have to hold out on the next chapter which lays the groundwork for the bombshell twist OooOOoooOOooOoOOOOOooo. oo.

very good :sunglasses:

very good :sunglasses:

if you get undead skeleton lord gas in them maybe?

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that word does have a meaning besides beginning an action

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you have no idea how much I want to drop that bombshell twist OooOOoooOOooOoOOOOOooo oo

so I need to try harder

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see you in chapter 5.

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Ch 13

Chapter 14

You.

Your first word.

Your first breath.

Your thoughts unfolding into limitless dreams, infinitely logical and infinitely limittless, which fled to every hilltop, each with a voice and rambling on about the possibilities of tomorrow. Every thought upon tomorrow spoke of a new horizon, a new hope, a glimmer of light on the horizon, a thrill which pushed you ever forwards unto that promise of breaking dawn and new, incredible discoveries waiting to be conceived in the matrix of your intellect.

You were that tomorrow.

You are Renner.

With one hand you swept aside the chambers of your mind, stepping back out into the grass-filled forest you had only just departed, your mind unraveling and reshaping your appearance from vague and uncertain to refined and definite, a human face nestled in sleek, futuristic armor, dozens of patches of blue lighting up as electricity coursed through them, a wolf helmet held in your hand which reflected the dark rays of the inverted sun.

With one hand you swept up, in dramatic fashion, two pointed fingers aimed at the inverted sun, and the idea of rupturing his form and spilling his energy across that distant meadow came to mind, but a far more ironic concept formed in your conscious, and you twisted your fingers to beckon.

With one word: “Remember.”

The silence was broken by a furious glow of orange light as the sun’s colors transformed back to their fiery glow once more. “That no-good The One To Trust! If it’s the last thing I’ll do I’ll break him into so many pieces- well, hyperbole. So you’re the one that got his spine ripped out, I recall?”

“Yes.” You replied, your expression determined and still.

SON∩S implied a grin. “Well, if you’re thinking of grinding that tooth-headed creature’s noggin into the sidewalk, you can count me in! I’ve been his puppet countless times, and was never given a chance to rest, always called again and again to serve his hypocritical purpose. It’s time it ends,” The celestial body rose into the air, surveying his surroundings. “But since you seem to have broken his control, well… What limit is there to what you can do?”

You thought for a moment. “You were called again and again… Were you the same as you had always been?”

“One hundred percent. It’s strange how he didn’t just make a new me, but maybe that’s beyond his capabilities somehow.” SON∩S replied, hovering thoughtfully. “But it seems that, well, it look like you’ve shut him out.”

You closed your eyes, your thoughts focusing into one concentrated motion, determination coursing through your veins. “It’s time to come back… Jethryn.

Your eyes opened at the surprise of physical contact, two harms gripping around you with the strength of Diero. Jethryn released his grip and looked up at you, his formerly tattered hood now whole again. “Renner, buddy… I owe you two.

Your eyes traveled around to face the Chronicler, his face a pure reflection of the flabbergasted awe bubbling up inside him, with his eyes widened more than what would have been theoretically possible and all inactive arms dangling limply from his worm-like body impossibly suspended in the air. He attempted to begin some kind of response, but instead closed his eyes and gestured with a bow that the journey, and the decisions thereof, were yours to envision.

Your eyes returned to SON∩S as another thought entered your mind. “We’re going to need a proper fighting force to take him on. My new armor has some unique capabilities, but we’ll need the forces of the departed in order to truly challenge him.”

“I’m thinking of people, but none you would know.” SON∩S replied. “Have you any willing to combat this monster of a foe?”

Your eyes closed, and then opened in confusion. “But that… I guess that one’s still alive. Alright then, what about…”

There was a metallic clang and an incredibly loud and irritated groan which followed it. “You’ve got to be KIDDING me! I was LITERALLY PERFECT and barring the fact that I still died, I’m BACK TO BEING THIS STUPID BENT PIECE OF-

“uh,” The axle noticed the group of strangers staring at him. “Oh, hi SON∩S. You… Were you there, too?”

“Let’s bring you up to speed.” You replied, placing the helmet in your hand overtop your head. “I’ve got a plan in mind.”

Ch 15

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